You're Mine
by Shadowed Mediocrity
Summary: [AU] “Just remember that you’re mine.” It begins with those words, but rapidly becomes something deeper and far more complicated than a mere promise to get back the boy of her dreams.. [Yoh x Anna x Hao x Tamao] [Chapter 14 Up]
1. You're Dating ::Who::?

You're Mine

**Summary: **AU _"Just remember that you're mine." _It begins with those words, but rapidly becomes something deeper and far more complicated than a mere promise to get back the boy of her dreams.. YohxAnnaxHaoxTamao

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Shaman King the anime, manga, soundtrack, etc. However, I do own a rather ugly piece of colored fanart for the show. If you want to see it, you can just email me or something.

**Author's Note: **Okay, so I've succumbed to the series of romantic pairings dancing about the world. The ending pairings aren't set yet; you're free to vote on who'll end up with whom. Side-pairings will probably be included in the course of the fic, but they won't be given much attention, although depending, I may write side-ficlets for them.

For now, just tell me what you think.

* * *

_Chapter One: You're Dating.. Who?_

"Anna?"

He was standing by the doorway, trapped and bracketed by the wood. Automatically, the blonde looked up, eyes rising to meet his own automatically. There was something in him that called to her naturally, the way she might be idly interested in the antics of a bird locked away in a cage. He was not a peacock, brilliantly-plumed, touched by all the colors of a rainbow.. but there was something in him that was beautiful all the same.

No, it didn't mean that he looked feminine, although sometimes Anna thought that it would have been better if he did. There would have been something more understandable about a man who looked feminine than one whose features were exquisite but simple.

She did not understand him; but then again, it wasn't required that she do so. All that they had asked of her was that she marry him, and certainly theirs would not be the first marriage in which the two married understood each other not at all.

Normally, there was no pretense of equality between them; Anna would wear the pants in the marriage, and it seemed as though both knew this. (Though again, Yoh refused to wear a dress, and Anna refused to abandon her traditional black skirt. It was a metaphor, and one that Yoh had sulked about for an entire day before understanding that he wouldn't be forced to wear frills after they were married, unless, for whatever obscure reason, Anna wanted him to.) Certainly he did; whenever she had pushed him to say it, he had always given in. He was like that: kind, willing to give her what he thought that she needed to hear.

But today, his gaze was warm, bright, the cheerful matte black that he bestowed upon everyone. Moreover, it was intense with a spill of love that she understood still less than the way he looked. What she grasped automatically, however, was that the warmth was not for her. Like a stream in the springtime, it flowed like some river turned black, onwards and past her, towards a source that she did not see.

"Yes?" _This had better be important, and even if it is, you'd better make it snappy. _Her deathly glare implied. _One of the men in the soap opera is in the process of breaking it off with the cold, abusive woman he should have gotten away from three seasons ago. If you make me miss this.._

Seeming to see this, he cocked his head to the side in a wry, sheepish smile, and cut to the chase.

"I'm dating Tamao."

_Click_.

The remote control in her hand wavered momentarily. Her hands convulsing, pressing several buttons in the process, permitted the television screen to flicker and dim into blackness.

Anna, however, didn't seem to notice.

"_What_ did you say?" The blonde inquired icily, and there was a dangerous edge to her voice as she moved towards him.

"I think you heard me very well, Anna." His voice had softened. The easy, graceful smile had faded away again, leaving him devoid of protection against the suddenly dagger-sharp quality of her stare. "I'm dating Tamao. You know, the pink-haired girl who lives with my grandfather because her parents wanted her to learn his trade? The one who moved here with my grandparents just a little while ago?"

Shock threatened to transform her eyes into circles of bewildered astonishment, but she would not allow them that much. The first question that occurred to her, however, was _Why_? Tamao was pretty and vaguely intelligent in the way that flowers and cute, fluffy animals were vaguely intelligent, but she was spineless and weak, wanting to be protected all the time..

Just the kind of girl that a man who had been forced into a dress would probably want, come to think of it.. (i.e. One that wouldn't put him into another dress.)

"I know who she is." Anna said, in a voice of cold precision. "I'm not deaf, Yoh. Or an idiot." The words _Unlike you.._ hung in the air, unspoken but unfazed by the lack of acknowledgement. "But what does your grandfather say?" And how weak she was, to fall back on the authority of some old man who couldn't even keep all his hair on his head..

"Anna," He said, with that faintly inane smile, "I'm sixteen. He can't dictate everything about my life to me, or else I would never have time to live. In any case, Tamao fills about the same requirements as you did, so they shouldn't mind too much."

"And she's prettier, too." The blonde interjected sarcastically. "A vision of flowery beauty." She could not help but be scornful, scornful of the way that he met her gaze calmly, as though he had expected everything she wanted to say.

Automatically, the girl found words coming to her lips, angry, bitter words. Words that had always been there, but she had never had cause to use. Now, however, she did, and she used them with a vengeance. "Flirt with all the pretty girls you like, Yoh; I could honestly care less where you spend your time," What a liar she was. "Just remember this: no matter what happens, you're mine and always will be."

"Things can change." She could not tell if he was mocking her; his voice had an evenness that she could not remember hearing before.

Her voice came in an unconscious softness as she replied. "Not this. Never this."

"You'll get over this quickly; it wasn't as though we ever did anything.." Later, she would never remember if he'd actually said those cheerfully callous words, or whether she had simply dreamt them into the scenario. In either situation, she knew that she could see his dreams in his gaze. And in them, tendrils of pink hair draped casually over his shoulder, a delicately structured face upturned to receive his kiss.

She did not need to speak aloud to ask him whether he'd actually touched Tamao yet; it was implicit in the way he moved, the slight, secret way he smiled.

Mechanically, a hand flew upwards, seemingly of its own accord, scoring him sharply across the cheek. It seemed as though he had expected the blow, for at the last moment, Yoh turned his head slightly, accepting the full force of the blow, as though in penance for the anger that raged still, that demanded blood, not merely bruises.

Blood sang within her ears as she studied him again, roaring with a deadly force. Scanning his gaze for any change, she humphed softly and moved upwards, up the winding stairs. Moments later, a slam echoed through the house as a screen door was crashed shut.

It was only then that Yoh allowed himself a weak smile. All in all, it had gone better than he had anticipated.

He wasn't lying dead in a ditch, for one thing.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Well.. that wasn't so painful.. R & R, please! Tell me what you think.. or just vote on the pairings. :P 


	2. Lies of the Glass

You're Mine

**Summary: **AU_"Just remember that you're mine." _It begins with those words, but rapidly becomes something deeper and far more complicated than a mere promise to get back the boy of her dreams.. YohxAnnaxHaoxTamao

**Disclaimer: **Quite often, disclaimers serve to remind me that the world is not a toy for my pleasure. In this case, it reminds me through informing me that nothing of Shaman King belongs to me. Ah well.

**Author's Note: **So, so far I have the following votes: 4 Yoh x Anna, 1 Yoh x Tamao, 1 Hao x Anna, 3 Hao x Tamao.

With all the Hao/Yoh fics about, I'm surprised no one's asking for that pairing. :P Joke, joke. But I should probably insert that I'm toying with the idea of one-sided pairings from the minor characters…

And another note to include is that this world does have magic; they're just not referred to as 'Shaman'. There are tournaments to classify how strong a magic-user you are, but when you're able to enter is generally decided by your family. Most magic-users enter the tournaments at age thirteen. That's also the age when they're betrothed. Women rarely enter the tournaments; generally they throw their support behind their betrothed and trust in them. Only the unbetrothed enter.. and they don't generally win, because the stronger ones are quickly snapped up for engagements.

So far, Yoh hasn't qualified for a tournament.. and he's sixteen. It's one of the reasons why Anna razes him the way she does. One of the _many_ reasons. ;)

Yes, this is going to stay primarily romance – but I just had to add a dash of magic, even if it's AU. Hope nobody minds.

* * *

Chapter Two: Lies of the Glass

The mirror was a liar.

It reflected calm, composed features, smiling-soft black eyes definitively set within a lean, boyish face. An irresolute happiness spilled from those eyes, a kind of obsidian sunlight that illuminated all that it touched. It said nothing about irresolute guilt, the tiny fragments of thought that replayed the shock in her eyes over and over again, and wondered if he had done the right thing after all.

Of course he had, Yoh was quick to reassure himself. Anna didn't love him and never had. Aside from the bitterness of realizing that it was her fiancé who was in control of the situation for once, there was nothing to regret about the situation. This was only her temperamental stage, when the rejection was all that she could see; rejection from a source that she had doubtless always thought merely a pawn.

His thoughts didn't stop the guilt from flowing, but it eased it slightly.

Turning his eyes outwards, rather than brooding upon the thoughts that had occupied him, dusky eyes scanned his reflection, searching for hints of imperfection. Tamao must be anxious, waiting in the park alone. If he closed his eyes, he thought that he could see the barely upturned curve of a dainty nose as it tilted huge, almost childish eyes towards the skies, never doubting that he would come, but worrying all the same...

"Dressing for your date with the pink-haired girlfriend, are we?"

The drawl came amusedly from the doorway, filled with a slow, sensual sarcasm. Yoh whirled to face it, muscles tense with uncertainty, before relaxing gradually, though not quite. His memories were suffused with moments when Hao had hurt him; hurt him where and when he least expected it. His brother – if brother he could be called – was not adverse to others' pain; it helped to pass the time before the next tournament.

"She's waiting for me at the park." He replied reluctantly, parting with the words as a miser might cling to his coins. Hao had a wickedly mischievous streak within him, and, were it not for Tamao's own powers, Yoh would not have put it entirely past his twin not to magic himself into an illusion and go on a date with Tamao himself. "Tell Anna that I won't be home until rather late; I think Tamao wants to go see a movie, too, and the one she wants won't be playing until late at night."

"Why don't you tell her yourself?" Hao suggested blandly, eyes curved with mirth. "I'm sure she'll be so pleased to hear the words from your own lips, rather than from mine. You _are_ her fiancé, after all."

"I'd really rather not be forced to do the electric chair for three hours before going on a date, and I think, no, I _know_ that I'll end up doing it if I tell her." Yoh admitted with a charming, wry smile, pushing away all doubts that he had possessed of his purpose. If he had doubts, they would have to be reviewed later; not now, when his twin was here, striding swiftly across the room to sprawl elegantly across the bed. "And you probably know already that if we're still engaged, it won't be for much longer.

Dark eyes clashed against dark as their gazes met, and Yoh was the first to look away.

"Afraid of your own fiancé, ototo?" The older twin said softly, his words edged with a diamond-sharp malice.

Yoh smiled again, forcibly, turning back to the mirror to uncomfortably adjust the clawed necklace that hung loosely about his throat. "Eiha, she's scary when she's angry. Even you should be afraid to face her, onii-chan."

Hao appeared to be inspecting his fingernails blandly, leaning into his other palm as he cocked a brightly amused gaze towards his brother. "I would, especially if I had abandoned her and left her entirely distraught."

"She'll never miss me. She's never liked me from the moment that we were engaged, and you know it."

"All those days spent making you do the electric chair for five hours straight..." Hao sighed nostalgically. "A pity that Tamao isn't shaped of the same clay as our dear Anna. However, I must admit that she is quite the pretty toy; is that why...?"

"Hao." The name was spoken lightly, but there was a subtle warning ingrained within Yoh's stare as his eyes flickered back to meet that those of his brother's.

_Tamao loves me, everything about me. She doesn't want to change me, make me different from what I am so that she will benefit. She loves me genuinely, sincerely, and wants nothing from me other than a love returned._

…_Anna's always wanted more from me than I could ever give her, more and more until I felt dry, desiccated. And even if I died from giving her everything she wanted, I know that she would never be satisfied with what she could take from me._

"So..." There was an insolent amusement in his sibling's voice that stiffened Yoh's spine, seeming to warn him automatically that the older Asakura was preparing to tread upon a more dangerous path. "Since you've left Anna, does that mean that she's free from all responsibilities to your relationship?" At the younger boy's confused look, Hao smiled lithely, cattily, and deigned to clarify. "Does that mean that she's single?"

Alarm leapt into the younger Asakura's eyes before he could prevent it as he jumped to the single conclusion to be derived from his twin's words. "You're not-" He began cautiously.

"Hai, and why not? She's strong – you know she is, or else Yomei and his wife would have never chosen her the way they did." Vaguely, Yoh wondered at the deliberate informality regarding their grandparents; and realized that it was a calculated insolence, and had always been. Hao had always been inclined to push his limits and see how far they could stretch... and the family let him. Yoh had never entirely understood why, but they allowed him less restraint than anyone else in the family. "And certainly she's cleverer than that pink poodle you call a girlfriend." Now his voice had taken on a teasing, older-brotherly tone, one that Yoh knew how to respond to.

A pillow rose weakly from the bed and thwacked the older boy over the head... or would have, if Hao hadn't ducked at that very moment. "Not your best effort, Yoh." He remarked blandly. "Very weak. Weaker than I anticipated, in fact. You should really re-consider forgetting about Tamao and going back to Anna if you're going to lose strength this quickly. Has keeping that pink-haired pet of yours about already begun to weaken your powers?" A mocking light glittered in his eye. "_Dear_ ototo."

Yoh ignored the repartee, focusing instead upon a single concept. "Get out, Hao." He said, and his voice was soft with a dangerous anger.

"Something wrong?" The latter inquired with a bright sarcasm.

"I didn't really think that you'd be the kind of person to go after a girl on the rebound." His voice dropped in volume still further, though whether this was because they were discussing Anna, or for the thrumming menace that pulsed within his voice, no one was certain. "There are names for people like that, onii-_chan_..." He spat the title out bitterly, as though hardly believing that he were granting it to Hao, "and not good ones, either."

"Just like there are names for people who break up with their fiancés of several years for no other reason than the fact that they've found someone prettier, right?" Was the older boy's smiling retort, though he rose from the bed swiftly, willingly. His features were ingrained with a light-hearted disgust, as though he had only begun to notice the flaws within his twin's physique, and the imperfections that went deeper...

"It would be cheating if you went after her now." Yoh said, though dazedly, as though he no longer understood the words that emitted from his lips.

Hao smiled. It was not the bright, vibrant smile that often infected Yoh's features, and danced across others' faces simply because his merriment was so infectious. It was the slow, seductive contagion that had acquired him so many fangirls at the high school that both attended. It was a sign, his younger brother had learned long before, of danger.

Languidly, he draped a casual arm about his brother's shoulders, forcing his gaze towards the mirror. Their features were reflected in the glass, bright and similar, though there was a darker knowledge about Hao's than the unblinking innocence that touched Yoh's and endeared him to others. "We look so much alike, don't you think, ototo?" The older twin murmured within the younger's ear, heedless of the angry way that Yoh gripped at an intangible sword at his side. "So much alike.. if I changed a little, think how easily I could pass for you…"

Abruptly, the younger boy was released. Stumbling away, he stared up at a suddenly towering Hao, eyes wide circlets of fear and defensiveness.

"Enjoy your… _date_, Yoh." The latter said with a smile. Combing suddenly agitated fingers through short-cropped brown hair, Yoh wondered why it had never occurred to him that, to go on a date with Tamao, he would have to leave Hao and Anna at home.

Alone.

Suddenly the prospect of seeing Tamao began to feel much less appealing than it had before.

Maliciously, the older Asakura brushed lightly past Yoh with a sensual grace as he paused at the door. Eyes studying the younger boy's frozen features, he seemed to grasp with ease the current of thoughts that were coursing through his brother's mind.

"Remember this, Yoh," His voice was an easy, languid drawl as his whisper brushed his younger brother's ear. "There are no rules in the game of love."

* * *

**Author's Note**: Aand.. there's the entrance of our beloved Hao – I think I had him a little out-of-character in this chapter, but hopefully not overmuch so. For those of you who were on the watch, yes, there was a little subtle hint of something in this chapter; see if you can spot it. If you can't.. well.. there's always hope for the next chapter, right? 

R&r, please! And here's the review replies:

**KristiexxNguyen: **Hey, thanks for being my first reviewer! And as for Yoh/Anna.. well, I really do fancy the pairing, but there is something terribly cute about pink hair. Currently I'm wavering on the subject, so I guess we'll all have to wait and see. What I do know is that there'll probably be an alternate ending so that most will go away satisfied.

**Betty:** Ah.. good. I like Yoh/Tamao too. :)

**YamiandAnzu4ever:** Heh.. not for at least ten chapters, with more forthcoming. I'm planning out the fic. :) But worry not; it'll have its Yoh/Anna moments.

**bOw-doWn-tO-KeiKO:** Hao/Tamao was a pairing that I'd never really contemplated up to writing the first chapter of this fic… which is why I'm really tempted to throw in some extra moments of Hao/Tamao-ness soon. The next couple of chapters are going to be dedicated to the date, so Hao and Tamao won't actually see each other for a while. But I've got a cute scene planned.. ;)

**Inulover4eva:** -laughs- I really think that Anna/Hao is the cutest of the plausible pairings. I'm toying with ideas of another alternate universe where Yoh lost in the final battle, and Hao won – where, therefore, Anna/Hao would be inevitable.

**Akira:** Like everyone else, you'll just have to wait and see. –angelic smile-

**soccer-cutie67:** Thank you.. :) And so far, the votes don't agree with you much, but I must admit that I really do fancy the pairings you chose.

**Kago:** A lot of the notes in the author's note were all for you, Kago. :) And this is the first (but not last!) chapter that Hao will be participating in, so I hope you enjoyed it.

**Dark Lady:** Love the name you chose; and I hope this update's soon enough.

**Tsubasa no Miko:** ; Eiha, there wasn't really a lot of humor in this chapter… But unfortunately, in this world, Yoh and Hao have a very… _intense_ sort of siblingship. It's not something I can make light of when I'm trying to establish the story. Later, I promise, though, will have its humor.

**Wendy Wei (alias):** I liked my writing style too, until the point when people started lodging complaints about incomprehensibility. Since then, I've toned it down.

**Meisha:** Hehe.. Bitter!Anna is one of my favorite combinations to play. As for Yoh, well… Yoh seems to be always happy. So that's a nevermind.


	3. Kisses and FortuneTelling

You're Mine

**Summary: **AU _"Just remember that you're mine." _It begins with those words, but rapidly becomes something deeper and far more complicated than a mere promise to get back the boy of her dreams.. YohxAnnaxHaoxTamao

**Disclaimer: **One would have thought that someone usually gets their dearest desire granted for Christmas. Apparently not; no unconscious Asakura Hao wrapped in reindeer paper this year. :( There's always next year, I suppose. But for now I own nothing of Shaman King.

**Author's Note: **36 reviews for two chapters. You guys have no idea how special I feel; just in time for Christmas (which was barely past), too! Thank you all for contributing to what seems a terribly large number; I've put my other fanfics on hold for this one, according to the laws of popular demand, and I hope you enjoy the fic insofar as it's possible.

Review-lover? Yes I am; it tells me how much of an impact my story's making, how much attention people are paying to it. (The fact that people generally only spend five seconds with a review is omitted here.) It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. :P

You may be wondering why I gave you that information in the previous author's note about their world; it'll come into play later. It'll probably be explained in the fic itself later, too, but I just felt that I needed to give you all a heads-up with regards to it, as there were some scant mentions of it in the fic.

Any ideas for what I should call the magic-makers in this world? Or should I just leave them as Shaman?

And the votes.. 5 Yoh x Anna, 4 Yoh x Tamao, 6 Hao x Anna, 5 Hao x Tamao.

Wow. HaoAnna's _winning_. Now there's an unexpected twist. –grinning hugely with malice and varied evils- And if you put the correct pairings together, they're tied. Any tiebreakers around here?

* * *

Chapter Three: Kisses and Fortune-Telling

She was waiting, just as he thought that she would be, in the midst of the park, seated by the fountain. She was always early to these gatherings – despite being relatively freed from his relationship with Anna, Yoh's mind still censored all mentions of the word 'date' from his thoughts, as though she might scan them and murder him for their contents. It sent a cringe of guilt shivering through his shoulder blades, occasionally, to think of how faithful she was, and how faithless he must seem in comparison. Always late, always easygoing where she was tense like a puppy with a new master.

But he loved the expression that alighted upon her features when she saw him each time, delicate as the frame of a butterfly mask, framed in a halo of silky pink that spilled about her visage. It was beautiful, as she was, but more importantly, it was for him.

If he had been Freud, he would have theorized that he had been starved of love at an early age – not familial love, for there had been plenty of that, but the simple exchange of affections that went on between a boy and a girl. The only person that he had been permitted to exchange such tokens with had been more interested in the amount of laps he could run around the neighborhood than the amount of romantic gestures that he would be willing to bestow upon her.

And then again, if he had been Freud, it was very likely that he would have been on drugs. So _that_ all came to nothing.

"Yoh!" Her eyes snapped upwards, gaze trained warily throughout the park before they settled on him, finely sifted sunlight in the midst of gloom. And quite abruptly, she was no longer by the bench, but at his side, gaze tilted upwards, cupid's bow lips curled into a dazzled, childish smile, flushed only briefly with embarrassment as she realized that she'd forgotten to tack on the '-kun' suffix.

Her joy warmed him, and crookedly, he allowed himself a cautious smile. "Yo." He said, grinning mirthfully – a traditional pun upon his name that required no laughter, no response. And yet Tamao laughed at it, tremblingly, throwing her head back in a gesture of freedom as she clung to his arm.

Darker knowledge welled from within: _Anna had never laughed at it._

"You didn't wait too long, did you?" The dark-haired boy inquired, draping an arm about her shoulders comfortingly. Accepting his comfort, the high-frequency vibrations that had swarmed through her body untensed slightly, allowing themselves relaxation in his company. "Sorry about being late; things got a little… hectic… at home."

"No, not too long." She murmured, managing a tremulous smile, though she never quite met his gaze. A faint blush tinted her cheeks lightly, brushing rose across palest ivory. The color faded rapidly as she absorbed the rest of his words, however, and the pink-haired girl glanced up in alarm. "Hectic? Hectic as in how? Not… Anna-san?" Her eyes brushed the already flourishingly-multicolored bruise that he sported upon his cheek, and the worry within her gaze deepened.

"Hai, Anna." Yoh said laughingly, attempting to brush off her worries as though they were mere dust upon ancient things that he sought to polish anew. "Don't worry so about it."

But some dust was more resistant to removal than others.

"Was.. was she very angry?" Tamao inquired timidly, nestling lightly against him, then away, as though uncertain as to whether he would object to the invasion of his space.

Yoh shrugged offhandedly, with a carelessness that he didn't feel. His eyes had tapered into arcs of smiling contentment as he leaned lightly against her head. (She was a full head shorter than he.) His thoughts were only to soothe the reticent youngling that had put herself into his care, his hands, and seemed liable to break with the slightest swaying breeze.

"No more so than usual," He responded at last, with a charming smile. "Eiha, usually she's so cold that I can barely tell when she's angry at all! Relax," he soothed her, pulling her against him, feeling her worry in the tense, unwilling lines of her body. "It will all work out."

Reluctantly, she tilted her head upwards, her lips finding his in a bumbling, chaste manner. A tiny, hot breath escaped her, brushing his cheek like some ephemeral spirit before they found each other.

Their lips bumped together clumsily once, twice, like moths in the process of being drawn to a flame. There was still a newness to their kissing, a thrill derived simply from touching each other, from knowing that a simple reaching movement would bring them in contact to the other's skin. Nothing was quite like it – the second kiss that was a more comforting embrace than a touch of passion. But it was no less appreciated in its capacity.

Long after their lips had broken apart, they stood still in the midst of an enveloping twilight, simply holding each other, enjoying the warmth and comfort that the other emanated. The growing darkness troubled neither of them; they didn't need to look at each other, to see each other in order to know that the other was smiling distantly, giddily, lovingly…

It was Yoh who spoke first, though less to her, it seemed, than to the world at large.

"The stars are really beautiful tonight."

She laughed quietly, tremblingly, but not quite as fearfully as before, as though fortified by his presence. "You always say that. Every night." There was a teasing lilt to her voice.

"True things don't get any less true just because you say them often." The boy responded seriously. As though to counteract that solemnity, however, he smiled, releasing her suddenly. "And that's why people need to tell you how beautiful you are more often." He finished.

Her cheeks flushed with a bright, delicate rose. "I- I'm not.." She managed to stammer.

"Beauty's in the eye of the beholder." Yoh quoted teasingly. As her cheeks reddened still further, however, he became concerned. "You know I mean it.." He murmured, for people had often taunted her on the same subject before. "Just relax and have fun; nothing bad's going to happen." A thought struck him, and he pointed to the clusters of stars that had appeared in the skies. "Your hobby is astrology, isn't it? Telling fortunes by the stars?"

She gave a mute nod, too accustomed to silence to break it now.

"Will you tell me my fortune?" It was difficult to tell whether he was mocking her or playing the deliberate fool at such magical tricks – his eyes were wide with earnestness, and his open smile showed his sheepishness at being unable to perform such a task himself.

She nodded, at first gradually, then resolutely. Two heads, one dark, one light, tilted upwards in open study of the stars above…

Tamao didn't need to ask him his birthday or any general facts about him; it seemed to her as though she'd always known. But the look in her eyes as she returned them to the earth was not one of wonderment, but of muted horror and a gradual terror that had not yet been accepted.

"What is it?" Yoh inquired laughingly, seeing the anxiety within her gaze and striving to pull it away. She was a creature of sunlight and joyful days; unhappiness should never cloud her gaze the way it did now. "Will my children all be cursed with baldness? Will my left toe grow a bunion?"

"I- Without a formal chart, I'm not sure…" Tamao said slowly. "But it seems as though… as though you'll come into some terrible misfortune and – oh _Yoh_-kun_…_" The gaze that she lifted to meet his was dark with tragedy.

"It looks like it's coming soon."

He was thrown by this statement, uncertain as to how to respond – how to brush it away. She was no charlatan, no skilless fortune-teller by the wayside. His grandfather himself, the not unskilled Yohmei-dono, was in the process of training her. And if she said it…it was almost certain to be true.

Perhaps later they would go to see a movie. But for now, there was nothing but silence.

* * *

**Author's Note**: Heh.. and I'll just leave it there. I'm not sure that it's as good as the previous two chapters, but I hope that it'll be satisfactory until I can type up the fourth chapter. (Which, I can safely inform you all, is probably my favorite chapter to date. No, not because of the pairing, but the dialogue, the scene. Fwah. You'll have to wait and see.)

As for the misfortune mentioned.. that's going to come into play too. You'll see. (Author currently has a face like this - D Look at it sideways.)

Please leave a review! And here're the previous chapter's review replies..:

**bow-down-to-keiko: **I don't know, I can tolerate Yoh/Tamao and Hao/Anna, or else I wouldn't be writing it. :) But in this instance, it could go either way. Think you could live with an alternate ending, though, if it came to that?

**Meisha**: -laughs- And there's another vote that brings me to a sticky place in history. We'll see, I guess.

**Ravendream:** Eiha.. thank you?

**Kira-Asakura:** I'm genuinely appreciative of the congratulations, but it seems as though you've posted it on seemingly every fic on So I suppose you're spreading indiscriminate Christmas cheer and I thank you anyway.

**Anonymous**: The votes aren't going your way so far.. xD But even if the votes don't turn out that way, I know that I'll be making little spin-offs, and an alternate ending for the rejected pairing.

**Koneko-Koneko**: Eiha, thank you. :) So far it seems as though you're going with the general consensus.

**The Summer Stars:** My writing? It tends to the mediocre, insofar as that goes, but all the same, I'm glad that you like it. I know that I won't leave Tamao out in the cold after the fic's complete, but she'll have her share of angst too.. Despite your adoration for her, try not to kill me when that happens? ;)

**YamiandAnzu4ever**: -grins- The votes are definitely going your way. Canonly, I'd agree that YohxAnna is inevitable. But remember, this is an AU.. so try to look at Hao with an unbiased eye, and don't kill him whenever I insert a HaoxAnna moment, okay? And according to calculations, there's a YohxAnna-ish moment in Chapter Seven, so watch for it.

**Dark Lady1:** Ah.. good. I was really worried about Hao; he seems really catty to me, but I was afraid that others mightn't see it that way.

**Aly:** Thanks for the review – did your second one get cut off or something?

**Trisyl: **Yes, yes, I'll remember the bruise. It won't have an important part, but it'll still be there as a reminder, three days later, in chapter eleven, when.. But I digress.

**Inulover4eva: **Doesn't everybody reply to their reviews? ' Have I been a bit of a gaffer or something? To me it seems a bit rude not to; like someone calling you to tell you you did a good job on this or that, and you not calling back to say thank you. I don't know what the protocol is on , though.

**asn water:** Yeah, it probably was a bit OOC to have Anna not shoot him down on sight for dating Tamao, but I put it down to her being in shock – like the time Hao ate Yoh's soul, and she didn't pummel him into the ground.

**yami1**: Hope this was soon enough for you. :)

**KristiexxNguyen:** Aww.. why's Yoh pissing you off? I tried to stay true to his easygoing nature – maybe I'm not doing it right.. but this is how I see him. He's a bit more of a sweetheart in this chapter, I think, and hopefully I got across more of the reasons why he's dating Tamao in the first place (other than the fact that she loves him and he's under the impression that Anna doesn't). But in the other respect, I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you; all four will be paired up. The minor characters may be bereft of relationships (although I have a rather wicked plan for poor Ren regarding relationships) but the major ones will be stuck in them, according to the will of the Goddes- hem, I mean, me. :D

**Akira:** Well, about Hao/Tamao.. the first scene that features it in this fic? I can say that Hao will probably enjoy it. Tamao? She'll be terrified out of her _wits_.

**Kago:** Aww, thank you. That was nice of you to say. :)

**Yuriel**: You probably haven't been looking in the right places, then. ;)

**Tensei: **An update in two days; hope this is soon enough for you. xD

**Nakashima-Michiyo: **The administrator of such a successful community could hardly be illiterate; don't worry about it.

**thefutureMrs.Kaiba:** Yoh/Anna is the only perfectly canon pairing that I know of in Shaman King, despite what they say about HoroRen. So naturally, as a devoted SK fan, I'd support it too. But then again, that's also what I love about fandom; freedom to elaborate. And hey, the US dub is good for the Hao/Anna fans among us too; didn't you see the episode where they first met? Wonderful stuff.


	4. Too Close for Comfort

You're Mine

**Summary: **AU _"Just remember that you're mine." _It begins with those words, but rapidly becomes something deeper and far more complicated than a mere promise to get back the boy of her dreams.. YohxAnnaxHaoxTamao

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing of Shaman King. However, I do own a rabid Shaman King fan, or at least pwn one. So, er, rawr. Beware.

**Author's Note: **Back from a little vacation of Hao/Jeanne-ness! (If you want to see it, it's already up; a little piece called By Moonlight.) Not that I didn't enjoy it or anything, but I think I'm safer in this world. I can see Hao and Jeanne together, but I can never see them _coming_ together. It always occurs to me that they'd kill each other first.

Sometimes I think that I'm too sensible for my own good.

Votes: 11 Yoh x Anna, 6 Yoh x Tamao, 11 Hao x Anna, 6 Hao x Tamao.

In total and separately, we have two ties again. Somebody better break these soon! xD I'm closing the voting at chapter seven.

* * *

Chapter Four: Too Close for Comfort

"But you don't understand!" Desperation tempered by a breathlessly romantic tone colored her voice as she turned to him, wringing her hands in a manner that had long been out of date since women's suffrage had been established in America. "Oh darling, how I love you… couldn't you find it in your heart to make a little room for me at all?"

"Now, now, dear." His voice was resonant with dislike as he carefully fiddled with the collar of his shirt. "Careful, sweetheart, you'll mess up my hair."

"Oh _God_, however could I let that happen…" Fingers entwining into dark locks, words spoken in a sensual, throaty tone.

"For Christ's sakes, woman, I _said_ not to mess up my hair!"

Dark eyes surveyed the pair with something akin to quiet derision as a lean form sprawled before the television, staring blankly up at the drama playing upon the screen. Though she had occupied many an hour surveying their antics, this evening, their voices seemed too tinny, the lines that discharged from their lips spoken once too often, in too dramatic a tone. The world itself seemed discolored with an incomprehensible trouble – one that did not exist… or one that the blonde simply refused to admit to.

"Great Spirits, what fools these humans be," A voice murmured near her ear, the whisper a caress of the twilight that enfolded the world outside. She felt the brush of a light, cavalier breeze against her extended legs as the shaman's canvas-colored mantle settled upon the ground – and in a moment recognized the voice that had spoken with such soft mockery so close to her cheek, and other, more sensual features.

"Shut up, Hao." Anna said aloud, her voice cold with dismissive spirit. "I haven't recorded this episode, and I will _not_ be made to miss it."

"It's merely another human-made drama." The voice that could seduce millions simply with its sensual sound continued, rebuffing her snub with as great an ease as she had spurned him with. "There's nothing about it that separates it from any other show. Surely you have more interesting tasks to do…" _Or people_. His voice implied, though only the light quirk to his lips gave the allusion that the thought had occurred to him at all. Under some unnamable compulsion, her gaze turned from the glassy screen to encounter the vision of casual carnality to her side. The body that he wore was too young for the air of corporeal knowledge that glittered within his level gaze, though he seemed not to care for what mattered and what did not – and seemed never to have done so. What Hao wanted was what he received, lest he rise on his own to take it forcibly.

The itako had never been made to understand how a pair of twins could be made to look so wholly different. It seemed something about the spirit that dwelled beneath the flesh – even had the two brothers switched bodies, the differences would have been distinct immediately. Yoh, for example, could have never gained the dark, desirable knowledge that lurked beneath his brother's gaze – a secret promise that rested intimately between he and she alone.

"Save your tricks." Anna was mildly scornful as she returned her attention to the television, though the aura of wariness about her sinewy body intensified; the blonde was hardly a fool. "You have enough of a fan-club at school and I hear enough about what you say of them to know that I don't want to be among them. Why are you trying to recruit me into it?"

"Do you really think yourself a low enough standard to fit among them?" The boy inquired nonchalantly. "As a matter of fact, there was something that I wanted to talk to you about, Anna…" Pausing audibly, deliberately, there was a very distinct silence where ordinarily the '-san' would have fitted.

"If you're here to talk to me about that bastard, don't bother." There was an angry harshness to the way she spoke, a clipped sound that hardly fitted with the easy way she had spurned his advances earlier. Her knuckles seemed brittle alabaster as she gripped the remote, eyes boring into the television screen with such strength that it was miracle indeed that it did not shatter beneath her gaze. "I don't want to hear about him."

"But you do." His voice was carefully persuasive, and cloyingly soft. Unwillingly, she raised her head, eyes darting towards him in a brief, reluctant glance. "You want to hear his name so badly, to talk and to let all of this go. Remember, I know what kind of person you are; you've lived a while with us; how could I not?"

"You know _nothing_ about me." The words were forced out mechanically before she could retract them and hold them in check.

His lips curled into a tight, secret smile. "Are you so sure about that?" Seeing that she would give him no sensible response, the shaman caught her right hand before it could reach his cheek.

And smiled.

"Would you simply listen to me and not play the part of the distraught fiancée so well?" The dark-haired shaman requested mildly, though there was no leniency to the heat that blazed within his gaze; the heat that seemed to have always been present.

"I'm not distraught." Anna seemed to have regained some semblance of calmness, for her muscles untensed briefly before shifting into position for a second attack. "Merely mildly annoyed. You're not worth much more than that, _Hao_." And a second hand was outthrown, the legendary left that was required only once to bring about an opponent's unconsciousness. Yet it seemed as though that one, too, were of little consideration; Hao captured it with seeming effortlessness, clasping it with his other hand.

"It seems," the shaman murmured, "as though we are at an impasse." And suddenly he was too close – had he always been so close, so that she could see the faint difference between his retinas and his pupils? – their noses almost touching, and their lips even closer... "What would you propose that I do now?" He breathed, a question that was more sigh than spoken words. The scent of him, familiar after dwelling within the same house with him for so many years, wafted over her, but it was stronger now than ever it had been.

There was a tang to the aroma that suggested a musky chocolate; profound, not without its hint of bitterness, and deeply intoxicating in its fashion. But most strongly, it alluded to _him_, the boy-who-was-no-longer-quite-a-boy who held her wrists in check and was close enough to touch, was unnervingly corporeal.

Returning to herself abruptly, the young itako wrenched her hands free from his grip, unconsciously massaging the places where slender fingers had pressured her flesh too strongly. "I would propose that you try to avoid making me miss the rest of my show." She responded, and her manner had transformed her to an unbreakable statue of wintry frost. "I have better things to do than play your games."

"But you _are_ playing my games now, like it or not." He replied languidly, propping himself up from where he sat with a single elbow. His regard was undeniably bland, though she felt that there was a slight insolence within his gaze, somehow. "You're playing them, and you cannot break free until the day that you yourself let everything that holds you here go.."

"Playing the mystic doesn't suit you." Anna retorted icily.

Amusement seemed to overcome his features briefly. "Was I being mystic?" He asked lightly, rising from his seat. "And here I thought that I was being lucid…" All business once more, his gaze implied a pitying contempt that was mirrored in his abrupt gentleness as he paused at the door. "Whenever you feel that these games are enough," he offered, seemingly to the air, though there was no doubt that his words reached her ears, "You're always welcome to join my side."

And he was gone, but not entirely, for his words were still drifting through her thoughts. And somewhere, deeper within, perhaps they were engraving words into a gravestone beneath which certain recent dreams were buried…

She was staring at a screen across which credits rolled too swiftly to be read. Staring, with eyes wide and blank as diamond crowns, and seeing nothing of that which passed before it.

Safely ensconced within the darkness of the corridor, a catlike smile touched his lips.

_It had begun._

* * *

**Author's Note**: I think writing _By Moonlight_ completely fried my brain circuits. Ah well; hope this chapter was bearable and suitably enigmatic. Next chapter features them _actually going to school._ Hurrah, or not? It might be slower in updating than these few days have been, because unfortunately, my Winter-break is coming to an end. (I know; you lot probably have one that goes on for another week. My school skimped on ours.) I'm pending grounding, so it'll be even slower. However, bear with me, have patience, and try not to kill me when I say that I'm planning the fic out, and it's at about twenty-one chapters so far, with more still coming.

Drop a review inside my mailbox and I'll love thee to the brink of eternity. ;) Particularly since this is my favorite chapter. (Not including chapter 13.) And now the replies (oh the ironies; my review replies are getting to be longer than the chapters themselves):

**Momorio:** YohTamao is cute. Not cute enough for a one-shot, but cute enough to provide loads and loads of angst for this fic. –chuckles evilly-

**shamanprincess:** Lucky! I want the PS2 Shaman King game! ..Unfortunately I don't even own a PS2.. ; I'm planning on asking for the GBA SK game if it exists, for my birthday, though. X3

**Cindy Asakura:** -bows- Sankyuu?

**The Summer Stars:** Trust me; the thought 'fangirly' never crossed my mind. I was absorbed by your username, which I rather liked. :) And I would never change my storyline unless a better plotline came and conked me over the head – it's hard enough to write without writing inspirationlessly.

**asn water: **Hey, this is _Anna_ we're talking about. She could find a way to bring an _elephant_ to its knees. So there. :P And yes, she's in this one. And, unless something drastic comes up, the next one. And the next. And the next. In fact, I think the only time we get a break from Anna are Chapters 8 and 9.

**KristiexxNguyen:** I'll make sure to take a peek when next you write one, then; it's hard to find quality Yohna these days. ;) Hope you recover from whatever Keiko did, too.

**Koneko-Koneko:** I didn't mean to accuse you of going with the fashion, Koneko! ; Die-hard Yohna fans should be allowed to be die-hard Yohna fans without being accused of fad-following. No, you may not vote again, but I'll take the sentiment and engrave it into a perfume bottle all the same. The next few chapters probably won't be your favorites, either, considering there's not really a lot of Yoh/Anna.

**bOw-doWn-tO-KeiKO:** I appreciate the comment on my LJ. And hey.. you get to see Faust and Eliza reincarnated in this AU world as a teacher and teacher's assistant in one of the chapters ahead! (-guiltily gives this away-) Feel free to speculate on what subject they teach until then, however..

I don't think Yoh/Tamao would be good for him in the long run, so it's quite probable that if the fic becomes Yoh/Tamao, there'll be a sequel with more angst than the original. x3 Until then, however, I'll just mysteriously repeat "We'll seee.." and try not to get whapped with any blunt objects.

**flower-girl018: **There is something terribly charming about a Hao/Anna thought, isn't there?

**Axianxperxuaxion: **There's no guarantee; even the votes are teetering quite precariously. At the very least, however, there'll be an alternate ending with the two of them.

**Fate's Companion:** Oh dear.. ; I was trying so hard to avoid that, particularly in this chapter. I suppose I'll just have to work on it.

**Snow-girl: **-grins- Now there's a first. Someone reviewing a romance fic who doesn't care about the pairings. Ah well, I'm glad to hear from you all the same!

**Trisyl:** Since you're the only person I've heard from, and your logic makes sense.. Shaman it stays, then.

**anime-obsession260:** It was leaning towards HaoxAnna, and now, thanks to you, it's tied again. xD Hope that works for you.

**Betty:** You just broke the tie! It's favoring Yoh/Anna again.

**niCE—TL:** I feel like a voting booth.. –laughs- It's favoring Yoh/Anna again. I'm wondering if I should stop people from voting at one point or another.

**Kamikaze Jeanne-Fan:** Can I ask you a question? What does Kamikaze mean? I've always wanted to know and always been too lazy to get around to looking it up. And yes, I'm going to try to fit everyone in. Even if a lot of them have minor parts, I want the whole SK cast involved, since most fanfics tend to focus only on their main pairings and completely ignore/eclipse the more interesting of the minor characters. Don't get me started on my rant about that. xD

**Meisha:** Yeah, Hao/Anna is winning.. and hope this chapter was enough Hao/Anna for you. :P

**Kawaii Koneko92****：**Just so you know.. you only get one vote, and no negative votes. ;) Aww.. poor Yoh – Fate's Companion and Kristie both agree with you. –pets him- He's really a sweetheart; just in a bad position right now. And I think of Tamao more as a refreshing change from the bold, beautiful, bold _and_ beautiful, and not-so-beautiful amongst the SK cast. But then again, you'd be hard put to find me a SK character to _dis_like.

**Akira:** Sankyuu. Tis lovely of you to say so.

**pandachan: **Hope this is soon enough for you. ;)

**Inulover4eva: **I know that there will be at least a little HxA action because the fanfic as a whole is supposed to be ambiguous. _However_. According to the plan, it might not happen any time soon. The soonest to come is some chit-chat even bitter-er than the things seen in this chapter. Ah well. :)

**Ravendream: **Oh dear.. I'm beginning to forget whether you've already voted or not. ; Mass confusion abounds. And I'm.. glad you're happy? Heh; rather in a confused state today.

**Ruby27: **Yes, Ren and Horo will be in the fic. I'm contemplating rather evil things for The Boy With the Spike On His Head, however, so he's avoiding me as much as possible right now. Chapter after the next at the latest, I promise. :)

**Me:** Wow.. short review. xD Anyway, much as I suspect you to be, oh, say, Keiko or someone like that, I'll take the vote and hope that you enjoyed this chapter, H/A-ness notwithstanding.


	5. I No Longer Know The Way

You're Mine

**Summary: **AU _"Just remember that you're mine." _It begins with those words, but rapidly becomes something deeper and far more complicated than a mere promise to get back the boy of her dreams...YohxAnnaxHaoxTamao

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Shaman King, but I have now acquired four of the manga-books! Hurrah!

**Author's Note: **Eiha… sorry that this update is so much later than the others! ; -guilty- I've been grounded and a lot of things have happened since then. The fic is still ongoing, but the updates will probably be weekly, rather than every two days. Sorry about that; please bear with me and my rather hectic offline life!

On the other hand, I now own four Shaman King mangas (due to a shopping binge at the local bookstore) … I feel accomplished. :)

Votes: 14 Yoh x Anna, 9 Yoh x Tamao, 17 Hao x Anna, 8 Hao x Tamao.

H/A is beating Y/A by three votes, and YT is barely rising above the 8 HT votes. Overall, Hao/Anna and Yoh/Tamao are leading the race – which is kind of surprising to me, I admit.

* * *

Chapter Five: I No Longer Know The Way

Night was swept away by brisk daylight as dawn glowed vibrantly over Japan. Sunlight glinted in refracted fragments within glass and other reflective surfaces, lending tiny aid to illuminate the day. It was a sentiment, however, that was not echoed within the household of two shamans and a certain itako…

* * *

Breakfast was made in silence – ordinarily Yoh protested Anna's arctic determination to force him to provision them. In recent days, it had come to represent the ordinary routine of the household. And whatever enveloped the massive residence now was not the cautious friendliness that had once existed between Yoh and his fiancé. At least, if anything existed between them, 'friendly' was hardly the word to describe it.

The brisk clang of a bowl against the table resounded through the house. Automatically, the brown-haired shaman cringed at the sound. That Anna would expect him to sweep the pieces from sight and mind, regardless of whether it had been his fault, was a fact that had been ingrained within him since the beginning of time. It was an arrangement that was never spoken of; that did not require speaking of in its utter simplicity. Nevertheless, despite the tremulous embers of sympathy and compassion that he reserved for her state of mind and the distraction that had surely touched upon her thoughts, there had to be certain limits.

He had yet to gather nerve enough to broach the subject with the intimidating young blonde, however.

Enrapt within his own thoughts, Yoh barely noticed as the girl rose with a barely controlled tranquility from her seat, seeing only the dim outlines of movements before his eyes. And before he could think better of it, curbing his tongue from voicing his thoughts aloud, he had spoken.

"Anna…?" There was a double-edge to the words that he spoke, though he did not intend it to be interpreted in that manner. In speaking, he was not only requesting her attention, but in a sense, her forgiveness as well. It had always been so, and though the shaman had blithely assumed that he belonged to her no longer, nevertheless he could not bring himself away from _needing_ her absolution in a manner that transcended logic and his own comprehension.

He needed her, though he was too blind to see it.

She, however, was not.

It was the same fumbling necessity that she had seen, glittering rawly within his eyes when the both of them had been younger. The potential, to be molded and shaped into something, anything she wanted. And in the years that they had transcended since that day, the blonde had seen only that future shape, that mold into which she would pour what he was now, never catching a glimpse of what he was while he was still blooming into that form.

And now it was too late… for him as well as herself.

"What is it?" Ice crackled sharply from her words, brittle daggers that threatened to bring blood from his veins. A carefully proscribed anger seared her gaze, studying him with every destructive emotion that had ever crossed her thoughts.

Anna could make pretenses of not caring, but ignoring Yoh seemed to be a concept entirely beyond her in this sudden, sweeping tempest of anger.

His lips parted, about to speak, and as though she could read his mind, she thought that she could already trace the words upon his lips:

_I'm sorry, Anna, I'm so sorry, I-_

"Ah!"

The sound was of an indrawn breath, a casual gesture that shattered nothing. But somehow, in its midst, as a second dark-haired shaman descended the stairs with a languid, felinesque grace, the moment to apologize passed; Yoh's desire to reconcile with the itako faded. The brown-haired boy's gaze, normally steady with some inherent confidence that she did not share, dropped and fell away.

"Nevermind." He said cheerfully, masking the hurt beneath the veil of normalcy, almost amazed at how easy it was to assume this façade. "I'll tell you at school."

But Anna had already turned away, and when she spoke again, her voice was venomous with contempt and scorn. "As though I care."

"Already feuding at such an early hour of the morning?" A third voice interspersed smoothly, falling into pace with the conversation with a slow, indolent ease. Dark eyes glinted with humor and a sharp edge of malice that was so thin as to be all but invisible as its bearer turned them upon the two frozen statues within the room. "You two are certainly being productive today…"

Raising his head, Yoh smiled, the mask of good humor so thin as to be transparent. But Hao accepted his façade graciously, with all the elegance of a sovereign. Having greeted his sibling, next he turned his attention to the young itako, who glared at him with blasé contempt.

The smile he turned towards her was wholly innocent, as though their conversation the previous evening had never occurred. "Good morning, Anna." And before she could respond, a cloaked arm had draped itself easily about her waist, fitting itself to that curve as though they were two puzzle pieces rejoined.

The action was not without its effect on Yoh; the younger shaman started slightly, eyes fixed upon his brother's arm, and more importantly, Anna's hand, which appeared to _not_ be making its way to inflict bruises on Hao's own features. And though Hao appeared not to note the startlement and aching dismay that had exploded from a cheerful mien, Anna saw it.

A thin smile curled its way about her lips as the pair made their way out of the room in silence, leaving Yoh – though he had not yet realized it – to wash the dishes. He had anticipated so many things, but she should have known that when it came time to let her go, he would never be able to withstand the pressure. She was his strength, as he was her patience – they had been too accustomed to each other to do anything other than depend on each other.

"What a drama…" Stiffening abruptly, Anna glanced towards the speaker, who was staring languorously out the open door. Countenance turning towards her, his mouth twisted into the sensual smile that she recognized all too easily. "I had not thought it in you to be so dramatic." And his grip tightened slightly about her waist.

As though she had only noticed his grasp, the blonde broke away, her shoulders tense with anger. In stark contrast to the pristine blue of the skies, her eyes were heavy and dark with a barely controlled fury; a vision of a hell that paralleled the near-heaven of the day. "_Bastard_." She hissed, but the sound was contemptuous, rather than angry. The sound of her slap resounded throughout the outdoors, as did the clack of her shoes as she blazed towards the school, features set with the ominous dark of a coming storm.

He touched his cheek gently, fingertips lightly caressing its surface as he studied his retreating companion with what seemed to be amusement. "So easily infuriated… and yet you're strong." The dark-haired boy mused to himself, regarding the other girl with languid delight, as though she were a pet, performing antics for his amusement. "It will be… interesting to see how Yoh does without you."

* * *

_Anna can't love Hao_. Dark eyes surveyed the blonde from across the room, though she never deigned to return his blatant, open stare. A few more moments of questioning assessment, however, and he turned away again, gazing pensively through the glassy window, into the courtyard below._ I would have known if she did. She would have never hesitated to tell me, just like she never hesitated in telling me how strong he was in comparison to me, how I would never beat him in any tournament, that it was offensive that I'd reached sixteen without ever being chosen for a tournament..._

And yet hesitation clung to his words, as though they were spoken less to assert the truth than to convince himself that his version _was_ truth. _But he went to her this morning, in a way that I know would have gotten me a slap. And she didn't so much as touch him, or look at him murderously, or anything…_

_What's going on?_

"Asakura!" A sharp rap struck his desk, and Yoh started visibly in drowsy surprise. Turning his gaze upwards, his eyes encountered the heavy-lidded pair of his teacher.

"If you would be so _kind_ as to pay attention, Asakura." The man snarled with courteous sarcasm. "Though you might consider school to be unworthy of your attention, nevertheless I strongly suggest that you listen to me._ And_ the subject I'm teaching." He stalked back to his board without waiting for a reply, resuming his speech as though he had never abandoned the stand, though his eyes were fixed meaningfully upon Yoh.

The latter, however, was easily swept away in a tide of thoughts as he appraised his brother's self-satisfied expression. He had never been one for over-interpretation, considering information to be a resource best used sparingly; too much, and he would be too bogged down to create the decisions necessary for his welfare. But now it seemed as though the images overwhelmed him with sensory input of days long gone, and futures that were yet to come…

_Hands –not his own, but belonging to someone familiar to him – twine in blonde strands, drowning in finely spun illumination as her hands curl chastely about his waist. The two standing closer than close, so near to one another that they might well occupy the same space within the universe. Her face tilted lightly upwards, exposing a deep, raw darkness in her eyes that he accepts readily, as he does what she offers up. Something that she had never been even mildly tempted to grant her fiancé…_

"Asakura-_dono_." The honorary title was granted with a denotation of vivid, biting sarcasm. "If you would please come up here and demonstrate the correct way to solve this math problem?" He gestured easily at the board, upon which was inscribed an obscure set of writing that looked far more like the pictograms they studied in history than the sensible math at which Yoh had been terrible.

Another shaman might have summoned a ghost to aid him in this, should he not have understood the subject matter. Yoh, however, could not; they had taught him little more than nothing in the years that he had spent with his family. Though Hao pushed his way brutally through any opposition that he might have encountered, Yoh was not of the same mettle. He could not summon strength enough to ask that they teach him, and so they did not. And now, when it was most necessary… he would be granted no reprieve.

This teacher was one of the more brutally merciless in their humiliations, and though he hardly minded in ordinary days, today, the boy thought that he could not stand it. Particularly not before Anna who, even with the tumult about, had still not deigned to glance at him. In that respect, she was wholly unlike his own twin, who was looking on the scene with something akin to amusement.

Neither condescended to lift a finger to aid him.

"_Asakura_-dono…" The teacher drawled again, and for a moment, the boy that he had named turned towards him. As he did so, the former started, shuddering with some unearthly terror that went beyond his own mortal dreads. There was something… inhuman in the fury of that gaze, the anger that was perfectly controlled, like a honed blade that had spoken, and begun to thirst for blood…

Rapidly, however, he recovered, loathing the younger all the more for having exposed him to that moment of perfect, supreme terror. Eyes narrowing in a distaste that would have been aristocratic, had it not been for his own crass demeanor, he regarded his student with something akin to contempt.

"Well?" He sneered.

And the words slid with a quiet calm that was eerie, rather than cheerfully accepting, from Yoh's lips.

"I'm lost on this one, sensei. I no longer know the way."

* * *

**Author's Note**: I know that Yoh might have been a little out-of-character in this one… he's being heartbroken. This is how I see Heartbroken!Yoh… which is really hard to play, since I could have never otherwise imagined him as heartbroken in the first place.. --; Anyway, hope you enjoyed it…

As an apology for the late updates, here's a short excerpt from the next chapter, mildly edited so that you can't really guess what's going on:

"_She's still my friend."_

"_She may be your friend," The latter said, with an exquisitely timed pause. A sleek smile curled about his lips. "But are you hers?"_

Everybody's coming in on the next chapter, even if it's just an honorable mention. Including a lot of rarities, like Faust and Chocolove..

You know the usual… read and review! :)

_Review Replies:_

**bOw-doWn-tO-KeiKO**: -bows- Sankyuu. :) And next chapter will have just a smidgen of Faust/Eliza; he's the biology teacher and emergency school "nurse" of sorts. Eliza's his teaching assistant. And I don't know; it's just how I've always seen Hao. –laughs-

**yami1**: Update's a little later than I would have liked, and yet I hope you don't mind.

**The Summer Stars: **Ooh.. –poke- Squishiness.. D And you know what's scary? The scene was actually partially based off of a soap playing in the other room at the time. Except for the bit about the hair.

**soccer-cutie67:** Just remember that you only get the one vote. ;) But so far the votes are definitely swinging your way.

**Kali Kamiya: **Heh.. –cough- I like how Fate sends me a curveball preventing me from updating quickly about the same chapter that you tell me how it's good that I update so quickly. Hope you don't mind too much..

**Blugirl: **Uhh.. Sankyuu?

**AleGnA:** -shrugs and grins- What can I say? Yoh/Anna may be canon, but there's something very attractive about a Hao/Anna as well. I'd love to see someone write a fanfic on their house-lives.. and whether Anna would succeed in making Hao do the chores the way she makes Yoh do them. xD

**Sarah:** I am getting deeply suspicious of all these disembodied votes.. oO –stare-

**Kawaii Koneko92:** Strangely, for all that she's one of the love-square, she doesn't get much attention in the fic at all, either. I guess I'll have to give her more spotlight. Thanks for inadvertently getting it to my attention. D

**Ravendream: **Well, I thought it'd be interesting to have Anna in the position of the intimidated for once. And this is what came of it.

**felipe1123**: -bows- Thank you. Always nice to meet a person who sticks to one pairing, but isn't afraid to appreciate another kind.

**Ruby27:** Same t'you! :) And.. er.. it's not an attack! –hides glaive- It's just a.. torture session? No! No! It's a plot device, a plot device, I tell you!

**Inulover4eva**: I thought I was being a little heavy-handed with the hints of romance in this chapter.. nice to have some reassurance. :)

**Kokoto:** Another disembodied vote.. oO; Ah well.

**Trisyl:** Er.. I think I might have done more obscure vocab in this chapter. Hopefully you survived through it.

**Miryan:** There's really nothing much that I can say other than.. sankyuu?

**Kago:** Hail, fellow Hao fangirl! D

**pandachan:** Why were you blushing? It's not as though they did anything.. terrible.. Although you might have been blushing because of the terrible jokes. Were you?

**Anonymous:** I'll tell him, but currently he's attempting to sic the Spirit of Fire on me for putting him in a romance pairing at all (I'm fairly certain that he /has/ loved before, in previous lives, but he doesn't care to publicize this in case the romance fanfiction about him doubles), so I guess I'll tell him… later… -wary look-

**Yuriel:** Hope it came soon enough for you. –grins-

**Meisha:** ..Or else what? –runs away beforehand anyway-

**Nakashima-Michiyo:** If you know why, then tell me why my fic's going well. And so far, yes, the votes are beating Yoh's. Happy?

**Snow-girl:** An Asakura-twins connoisseur or something? Anyway, sankyuu! :)

**Mina-chan**: Disembodied vote.. o.o –poke-


	6. What Free Will Creates

You're Mine

**Summary: **AU _"Just remember that you're mine." _It begins with those words, but rapidly becomes something deeper and far more complicated than a mere promise to get back the boy of her dreams...YohxAnnaxHaoxTamao.

**Disclaimer: **If I owned Shaman King, Shonen Jump would be /really/ sorry for saying 'mana' instead of furyoku in all the translations.

**Author's Note: **This update is really, really late, I am sorry! –cringe- But I hope that it's long enough to make up for it. There was a lot of stuff that I felt the need to stuff in. :) Unfortunately, the rating has been upped to PG-13 due to… Ren. Ren and the fact that he likes to swear. It's just overuse of the translated Japanese word _kisuma_. Try not to let it bother you.

I got Shaman King volume 5, but I'm just finishing up with volume thirteen. If anybody knows where I can get my hands on a decent scan of after volume thirteen, I would be eternally grateful.

Planned up to chapter 21 now; I should have mentioned this before, and I think I did, but I'll just mention it again. …Whee?

I also am working on a side-project: fanart of Hao and the Hoshigumi. It's just a sketch so far since I made it in math class in twenty minutes… but I like it. I'm usually a terrible artist anyway.

Whee! I'm rather pleased with this chapter, it's longer than the others… and I'm making pasta as I write it! Now let me check on the votes…

Votes: 19 Yoh x Anna, 10 Yoh x Tamao, 19 Hao x Anna, 10 Hao x Tamao.

Geck! The votes are tied completely, both as a whole and as individual categories… -shakes fist at indecisive crowd- If you don't decide by chapter 7, it becomes MY prerogative to decide! Remember, next chapter is the last chapter to vote!

* * *

Chapter Six: What Free Will Creates

She was waiting for him in the arched doorway of the cafeteria after class, standing in the corridor with the sleek arrogance that had always been her stereotype. The few that bypassed her edged carefully around her, unconsciously responding to the powerful aura that thrived and roiled beneath her smooth ivory skin. He could not blame them; he, too, had always been afraid of this medium-sized girl with the blonde hair like sunlight spun finely, and the eyes as cold as the crest of Mount Everest.

"_Every memory that I have of her ends with me in tears._" He had once said with blithe sheepishness to his favored companion, Manta. But the cheerfulness hid the bitterness of that truth… even from himself.

Lost in thought, for a moment he met her gaze unashamedly, with the steady ease that he had demonstrated when he had first told her of his relationship with Tamao. Ironically, in that self-same moment, as time slowed to a sluggish crawl, there was that old connection again, a powerful thing that beat at his heart and forced it down. It banished all thoughts of the pink-haired girl for a moment as, before her unwavering gaze, he was reduced to the child that he had been when he had first met her – the child who had once loved her because, even with his child's eyes, he could see that she only wanted him to be better.

Her eyes flickered with the same coldness that had always characterized the blonde, though there was a relative amount of uncertainty as her lips parted to speak. "Yoh?"

"Uh huh?"

"Just because you're dating her means nothing. Nothing here has changed." The lilt to her cold voice lent some appearance of insolence to her tones, and for a moment, the shaman-in-training felt his heart surge again as time resumed its normal course. It was not that, the dark-haired boy reasoned, he had desired her forgiveness so – merely that keeping peace with the daunting blonde was a course more easily taken than constantly opposing her.

"You mean…" Yoh inquired breathlessly.

An icy wave of darkness renewed itself within her gaze as she stared at him coldly. "What are _you_ so excited over?"

Moments later, his head was drooping over two lunch trays, both of them piled high with victuals. Had they been in a cartoon, floods of tears would have been waterfalling from his eyes at that moment.

_I should have known that she meant that I'd still have to carry her tray at lunch…_

As they headed towards the cashier, a second thought snuck up on his mind and pounced upon it, thoroughly brutalizing it.

_And that I'd have to pay for it too…_ Came the morose addition.

* * *

"Yoh!" Wide-set, childlike eyes rose to greet the newcomer, shining with the devoted fervor that Yoh appeared to inspire within all of his followers. As the tiny boy announced his name, the other heads set around the lunch table jerked up to greet him as well.

The familiar dark pompadour rose. Peering from beneath its hedge grinned a grin that was feared by all women – and anyone of female appearance – within a ten-mile radius of Funbari High. "Yoh-_dono!_" The twice-failed high school student greeted the younger boy, pulling out a chair respectfully, indicating that the brunet should seat himself there. An icy look from the _itako_ at the boy's side, however, reminded the lanky man that a second seat was in order – and it was fetched with all the rapidity that one being hounded by a certain blonde might desire.

"Yoh-kun!" A green-haired lad spoke up with touching eagerness as Anna seated herself with a sniff, radiating the thought that this was an unworthy seat, but she would accept it for the moment.

"Grgrloh!" This emerged, somewhat garbled, from two heads – one adorned with blue hair, the other crowned with a microphone shaped set of deep sienna. The reason was immediately apparent as the both of them glared at each other momentarily before each downing a bowl of chili. The usual eating contest; although Chocolove appeared to be winning for once.

Golden eyes regarded the brunet momentarily before turning away with cool disdain. "Hmph."

The other denizens at the table did not greet the boy, but rather, regarded him with profoundly inscrutable intent, though a bland malice was evident upon most of their features. If enough attention was paid to each of them, however, an impartial viewer might have noted that their primary attentions were directed towards a cloak-bearing boy who looked not unlike Yoh himself. Yoh, however, deigned to ignore that motley set, grinning amiably, instead, at his companions. "Ara…" He said uncomfortably with a wry, self-depracating smile. "Sankyuu everybody for leaving me a seat."

"Master, it is nothing--" Ryu began humbly, though his distraction with the trim lines of Lyserg's uniform was apparent.  
"Your friends were not the ones who got you that seat." A cool voice interrupted the procession of their conversation, shattering it with a sly ease that came with a thousand years' practice. "Or at least, not all of your friends contributed to the effort. Only one of them actually bothered trying, neh, Ren?" And obsidian-chipped eyes glinted with a conniving malevolence as the shaman shot this comment abruptly towards the spike-haired boy.

"What are you trying to prove?!" The other boy's blunted tenor resonated across the table with his swift, angry reply. Occupied as they all were in the deliberate jibe that Yoh's brother had directed towards the indigo-haired shaman, none noticed the unnaturally vivid flush that stained his cheeks bright with color.

Hao allowed his eyes to close, a gesture of sensual, casual insolence. "Oh, nothing…" he murmured indifferently. Regarding the faintly blushing shaman with half-lidded eyes, he paused dexterously before inquiring, "_Is _there something I should be inquiring after?"

"_Kisuma_." Ren sputtered at him, growing still more crimson.

The thin smile widened faintly as Hao watched him with an amusement akin to direct insolence. "Hardly. Yoh and I are twins – so unless you'd like to implicate my dear brother in that statement…" He trailed off easily with a lofty smirk. Before Ren could retort with a statement as sharp as his hair – and the spear that had materialized in his hand – the cloaked boy turned to his brother. "Yoh, do you know whether our parents were married when they had us?"

Staring up from the burden of two trays, Yoh glanced with weary, half-amused sadness at his brother. "I should think so." He replied in bewilderment. "Speaking of babies, I--"

"Yoh, I do _not_ want to have a discussion about how children are made right now." Steely annoyance glittered in flecks within his former fiance's eyes as she glared at him deliberately. "I'm trying to have lunch. If you really want to know, go ask Faust after lunch. He's the biology teacher for a reason, after all."

Mention of the blond man made the boy gulp and straighten up abruptly. Though he knew perfectly well that there was nothing wrong with dead people aside from the minor fact that they didn't breathe and had unfinished business on earth, and that Faust was _not_ dead, there was something distinctly sinister about Faust's appearance. Perhaps it was the somnolent hilarity reflected in his eyes or the fact that he appeared to have bags of purple eyeshadow daubed beneath his eyes. Perhaps both, and the additional fact that he spent half his class time flirting with his assistant and wife Eliza.

Whatever it was, he was the _last_ person Yoh wanted to ask such a delicate subject of.

"_Kisuma_." Ren grumbled again, but under his breath as he sat. "Bastard."

"Bastard – a bass 'tard!" A sonorous voice rang out over the lunch table as Chocolove posed in the midst. His voice had dropped to below his usual range, and his expression could only be addressed as positively demented.

A tic below the violet-haired boy's left eye twitched as he surveyed the other shaman. Before anyone could react to the brunet's joke, he had prodded the other boy's nose with his spear. Pausing a moment, his lips formed a thin smile as he watched Chocolove yelp in pain and withdraw to curling into a little ball upon his chair.

"Bastard." He said again, but this time said it with a greater amount of satisfaction.

* * *

Yoh had been entirely oblivious to the drama that had been passing around him – for Tamao had arrived.

Timidly she had crept towards the table, apologizing profusely with her head bowed humbly as an accidental movement jostled her into someone's chair. And how oddly grateful she had looked when he had stood, grasping her tray with a deft hand as he guided her lightly towards the table! It redoubled the light, tender radiance of her features and lent her an appearance of ineffability, of beauty beyond the knowledge of humankind…

Tremblingly she sat, quivering like a delicate, highly-pitched instrument that required care in manipulating. And he – he never allowed his eyes to stray from her dainty figure, even as she ate. And with their separate attentions fixed wholly upon each other, they never noticed that a third pair of eyes was watching the both of them, with a cold calculation that did not dare to betray the turmoil beneath…

They wore their affections openly, like fools with pulsating hearts bleeding upon their sleeves. And though Yoh had told her, over and over, that it was no business of hers, until his warning echoed within her ears whenever she chanced to look at him, it _hurt_ still to see them together, to see him bending to her attentions without so much as a reminder. _This_, she thought,_ is what free will creates; a readiness to listen, a loving thing that is not there when the action is forced._

The fine, clean lines of his profile were rendered starkly against the light for a moment before he turned, inadvertently summoned by the strong pull of her gaze. Eyes whose color had been diluted by dreams of love met her own, oddly translucent and inscrutable – but the moment was fleeting, fleeing him as quickly as she cringed away from his gaze.

Her mouth was a thin, humorless slice as she rose, so slender that it was almost invisible against skin that seemed as delicate and pale as porcelain. Beneath the delicately arched, ladylike brows, dark hawk's eyes stabbed him brutally, a parting blow before she left them together.

_Together_. The word stung, but only for a moment, like an insect's needle sliding into her skin, pumping a chilling poison through her veins. She remained still wordless, however, a blonde wisp lost in the current of time – and the present tide of people that swept past Yoh's table and sped her away.

As an automatic gesture, Yoh's knees stiffened, forcing him to rise as well. From the moment that she had stood, his eyes had never abandoned that slender figure, so illusionary and easily lost in the roiling crowd of the school. But before he could stride after the blonde, a hand caught at his arm.

Gazing backwards in mild surprise, his eyes met Hao's, and cut into them.

"She's not yours anymore." The dark-haired boy said quietly, but there was no mistaking the smirk upon his features. "So you shouldn't care... should you?"

And for the first time, anger stirred within the murky depths of his eyes; not petty anger, but a deep, burning thing that would etch its mark into the world. Impatiently, burning with that anger, he shook off his brother's hand – or attempted to. But the other boy's grip was stronger than it appeared, and it clung finely, with a woven grace but a pressure like unyielding steel. "It doesn't matter that she's not my... fiancé for much longer." He said seriously, and allowed the thread of anger to be lost within his patient, calm gaze. "She's still my friend."

"She may be your friend," Hao said, with an exquisitely timed pause. A sleek smile curled about his lips as his eyes clashed against that of his brother's. "But are you hers?"

They stared at each other for a moment longer, both of them immobile and tense with unseen pressure. Hao's companions – whom, for whatever reason, were widely known around the school as the Hoshigumi, the Star Group – sprang up from their seats alertly, quicker to react than Yoh's friends. Like a prince with his underlings, however, the long-haired boy waved their attention away with ease, eyes never breaking away from those of his twin's.

A second silence descended upon them, longer and more profound than ever the first had been. But the elder of the two was the first to break it.

"Go, then." Hao said softly, and his whisper cut at the air with a savagery that went unseen beneath his cultured expression. "Be slapped. She'll never forgive you for what you've done."

A shrug shuddered through the other boy's shoulders, and a wan smile accompanied it. Yoh was as gracious as always in his victories.

"I know," he said, "that I cannot ask for her to grant me her forgiveness."

"Then what?" Blasé amusement bored cruelly into the younger boy's eyes, probing for a response that was not his to read.

Yoh fought him squarely for a moment before allowing his gaze to drop away in defeat. "I don't know." He said, and found that a smile was making its way across his lips, across the brambles and faint scars of past training sessions with his fiancé. "But I'm sure that everything will work out, neh, onii-chan?" He flashed his brother a childish, exultant grin before darting away into the crowd, after the elusive itako.

Leaving the Hoshigumi and Yoh's own friends to wonder who had won that conversation after all…

* * *

**Author's Note**: Who DID win the conversation? I'm definitely not telling! ;) Read and review, as per usual… and here're the review replies. I really should just stick them on my website. -.-; They take up so much space.

**Inulover4eva:** No, she didn't plan it; it was a spontaneous action. However, she let it slide because it's the first time since Tamao that she's had control over Yoh. And our itako is hardly one to let opportunity pass her by.. ;) And he's a little less broken-hearted in this chapter, due to the fact that Anna's talking to him again, even if it IS to make him buy her lunch. –pets him- Dear, dear Yoh…

**The Summer Stars**: Envy envy envy… I spent forty dollars at the bookstore the other day to get my five Mankin volumes. –hugs them- And I don't think that it's really that he wants to go back to Anna – Tamao loves him too much for that to happen. And even if he /did/ want to, he's gentle enough so that he'd wait until Tamao found herself someone else.

**asn water:** -grins- Well, look at it this way; Tamao spent most of her life in love with him, and their relationship gradually built up from their childhoods. Anna, however, has never liked Hao very much. To him, this relationship must have seemed like it sprang out of nowhere. He's not jealous so much as shocked and – okay, fine, he _is_ jealous. Just not as strongly as you might think.

**Kawaii Koneko92:** Yeah, I realize; the manga/anime's Anna would have never tried subtlety in attempting to win Yoh back. Thankfully, this is a sort-of-AU Anna, and she's slightly different. Which is also a convenient excuse whenever she steps out of character. D

**Kaorien Otome:** Since you say that you rarely ever review.. I thank you for the review. :) And I agree about Hao/Tamao. But it's not the canonity of the pairing that appeals to me (since there's none), but rather, the interaction of the characters and how they might fit together. It's the combination of their personalities, and what effect their relationship would have on the people around them, that interests me most. And if you're blocked from more chapters, feel free to send me an email and I'll send them to you.

**KristiexxNguyen:** Well, the preview's in here, slightly edited, but still same as a general principle. If you want your fic betaed, then sure, email me.

**pandachan:** You imagine yourself as Anna? I always put myself in Hao's shoes, perhaps because he's my favorite character.

**dreams0123**: Yoh/Anna –is- a canon pairing; there's a quality to it that can not be made evident in any fandom-derived pairing.( I.e. I can see your point. Yoh/Anna is pretty nifty.)

**thefutureMrs.Kaiba:** Like a fungus? –blinks innocently-

**SquirrelFraulein:** Thank you… and wow. You just saved Hao/Anna from being tied with Yoh/Anna again. xD Close, close, but the voting goes on…

**KariHP:** Thank you! For the review, the vote, and the compliment.

**Angel Asakura:** Thank you… and as emotionless as /Anna/? Wow.. –grins and winces- Your vote has been duly noted; you've just tied them. Again.

**bow-down-to-keiko:** Come on, you know the pairing's cute.. if not as canon as Yohna. And you should be happy; voting tied them again. Or maybe not, depending on whether anybody else has voted…

**cam: **Whee, a tiebreaker.. Yoh/Anna's winning, with only one more chapter to go…

**PRoyalAngel:** She didn't exactly steal him. I know I've been unspecific about how they really got together in the fic in the first place, but here goes: Yoh, being dense, took several years to figure out that Tamao liked him. When he did, he spent another two years being confused. During that time, Anna was all the more ruthless in her training, so he took to using Tamao's company as a refuge, since Manta, not being terribly necessary at the time, was being continuously hauled away by his dad to be trained to take over the electric company. This led to the two of them going out on excursions to the city with only each other for company… but he didn't figure out that they were dates until a while later. And then he told Anna.

Tamao was a surprisingly passive character during all of this.

**Snow-girl:** Hao's my favorite charrie. –snugs him-

**Kago:** Hehe.. –cough- Twenty days since my last update. Sorry! –cower-

**Meisha: **She's not evil so much as broken-hearted in this chapter… poor girl.

**cherri-chan**: My opinion is that he's not jealous because he doesn't see anything to be jealous over. What he's jealous of isn't the fact that Anna appears to be willing to enter into a relationship with Hao, but rather the fact that there's this intimacy there, and she lets it happen. Whenever he tried to befriend her when they were little, she slapped him away (mostly literally, Anna-style). To see Hao grasping it with such ease is just another realization of his childhood jealousies. Hao always came off better when they were young anyway.

**Cindy Asakura:** You just tied the votes again! –laughs- Gah, doom!


	7. Never Forget

**You're Mine**

**Summary: **AU _"Just remember that you're mine." _It begins with those words, but rapidly becomes something deeper and far more complicated than a mere promise to get back the boy of her dreams...YohxAnnaxHaoxTamao.

**Disclaimer: **I own neither Shaman King nor many Shaman King products. Alas. Woe.

**Author's Note:** I'm late! –cringes- Now, before you all get on me for that, I should say that I've been very, very sick. I had a fever all last weekend (and didn't it feel just _great_. –scowl-) and coughed my way all through this week. Hopefully next week will be somewhat better for me and I can update everything sooner… I've also made this chapter somewhat longer, partially because there was so much that I had to say, and partially because I was feeling guilty.

It appears that in previous chapters I've neglected to mention one very important difference in my world's AU; Faust's Eliza is alive, and very pretty as she serves as Faust's assistant in his biology class.

You might want to remember this… Why am I saying this? Because.. well.. you'll see. –benevolent grin- In this version, he's still a Shaman, but for different reasons which will be mentioned later.

Votes: 27 Yoh x Anna, 12 Yoh x Tamao, 27 Hao x Anna, 12 Hao x Tamao.

And… it's still tied. –makes face- Good grief, people; I can't make this decision on my own, you know! So I think I'll keep the vote tentatively open for another chapter… try to give me a clear decision this time! –mutters-

But, but – and I neglected to mention this before, so I'm going to badly time it and insert it here—I broke the hundred mark! –beams hugely and hugs everyone- Thank you for the votes, for getting me to here. I'm very grateful for all the feedback that I get. :) Hopefully this chapter makes you as happy as your reviews do me.

* * *

Chapter Seven: Never Forget

As Yoh vanished into the crowd, fading easily to the edge of memory, the tension forced upon the lunchtable eased. Conversation flowed deftly from lip to lip, and the exchange of glances now were no longer suffused with a wary determination to attack the opposing side if they should prove malicious. Neither, however, was there anything to keep them bound to that table any longer; with Yoh's disappearance, it was only too easy to notice how the ranks of his own companions far outnumbered those of Yoh's.

"Ha."

HoroHoro, oblivious as ever to the odds, set his ramen bowl down with a _thunk_.

"I win." He smirked, polishing roughened nails against the pale color of his ever-present winter jacket. "You really shouldn't try to challenge the Master of Ramen, Chocolove." This was flashed as an afterthought to the comedian, who was sprawled along his chair, patting his gorged stomach and groaning faintly with every passing second.

"Congratulations, HoroHoro." A languid voice drawled from the other side of the table. The Ainu's eyes narrowed considerably in wary dislike as he whirled to face Yoh's sibling, body overwrought with some unseen pressure. "But my beloved brother has told me that Ren can do better at times, can't you, Ren?" A lip curled in amusement as he shot this question towards the Chinese shaman.

Caught off-guard, Ren reacted instinctively – with his traditional world-weary contempt.

Saffron eyes flared as their bearer glanced contemptuously towards the evidence of HoroHoro's victory. "Proof that you have a large mouth and a larger stomach isn't anything to be proud of." The Chinese boy said dismissively; an answer to both Hao's statement and the cerulean-haired boy's wordless query.

Brusquely, the easy smirk to HoroHoro's features vanished, replaced by an ominous glower. "Are you implying something, you purple-haired freak?" He demanded, gripping the snowboard that never left his side tensely, eyes thinned with an unspoken challenge.

"Who're you calling a freak, you bloated pig?" Ren snapped intensely, pointed hair seeming to tower over the scene as the two glared at each other. His voice was husky with a thin current of anger that intensified with every moment. "You're the one who ate nine bowls of ramen-"

"Huh, yeah, well, I heard from your sister that you sing Chinese karaoke on the weekends!" HoroHoro retorted desperately, rising to his feet to glare fixedly down at his rival.

The light flush upon the indigo-haired shaman's features deepened in hue. "And what if I do?" The boy demanded sharply. "I still sing better than you ever will! You can't even _fight_, and you want to try to make fun of my singing?"

"You think that I can't fight?" Danger glinted in the other boy's gaze as he hoisted up the snowboard with a meaningful jab.

Never breaking the glares that had sparked between them, through a silent, mutually reached agreement they rose from their seats and sped off in the direction of the school gym. And the dark eyes that had engineered their departure played audience to their tiny drama with amusement before turning away, to their next target…

* * *

"You chased HoroHoro and Ren away." The voice was a childish accusation, placed by a figure with an equally childish face and stature. "Why?"

Laughing, Hao deftly snatched an apple from Manta's lunch tray, grinning with a muted malice down towards the younger boy. "What makes you think that I chased them away?" He questioned indolently, sprawling casually upon his seat, legs splayed with a casual ease – a position that his companions responded to instinctively, accommodating him as a matter of fact. "They went of their own accord – didn't they have an argument going on? It would have been hardly polite to start it and finish it in the lunchroom; most people generally have an objection to being splattered with blood in the middle of their lunch."

"You _started_ that argument-" Manta began sharply, rounded eyes fixed accusingly upon the apple in his conversant's hand. He was tersely silenced as a tiny voice snapped, "Hao-sama not to be questioned!"

Startlement danced across his features as he turned to find Opacho hovering closely to his side. "Hao-sama the best, and knows best." The cloaked figure said firmly in her high-pitched tones. "Manta _baka_ to think he able to question best."

"Baka?" Drawing himself to his full height, Manta glared up at Opacho. "What do you know? _Yoh_ is the best. He's a hero and strong and everybody loves him."

"Manta _very_ baka." Was the inevitable retort, spoken with a curious satisfaction that verged upon insolence. And from his vantage point, Hao smiled, seeing some tiny jest in those words that he alone appeared to grasp.

Infuriated, the tiny boy caught at the child's hand, enfolded in the depths of her rust-hued cloak. "Come on!" He tugged at his newly made companion's hand, eyes filled with an odd, fiery urgency. "I have a whole album of what Yoh's done, and some pictures; I'll _show_ you and then you'll see—" Abruptly, Opacho was hauled off with an almost superhuman strength, fueled by the boy's determination to convert the world to his fandom.

As though Manta's presence had been the last stay to bind them to the table, one by one, each of them drifted away. Faust and Eliza, hands fastened so securely that it seemed impossible to distinguish where her slender fingers ended and his own deft ones began, bounded contentedly off to the library in order to research one of Faust's most recent Shaman history projects. (He had recently acquired a taste for such projects, and his spirit, a deft creature with a talent for locating the necessary information, was only too happy to comply with the needs of Faust's curiosities and those of his wife, Eliza's.) Chocolove followed shortly after, groaning an excuse under his breath about the necessity of seeing Faust for stomach medicines of some sort, or possibly a rapid surgery to remove his stomach entirely.

Lyserg, of all of Yoh's companions, appeared most reluctant to depart. Possibly this was because Ryu seemed inclined to do so, swaying like a weathervane in every direction, indecisive and unmoving from the position that he had taken up when first lunch had begun. It was equally evident that he did not enjoy the excessive attentions that the dark-haired man paid him, and was equally disinclined to dissuade him, lest Ryu mistake the ploy to fend him off as a veiled come-on.

"Feeling a bit too stifled, Lyserg?" Hao inquired lazily, and was not surprised to see eyes like chips of green class flash to him with unmistakable hatred. There had been some tiny spark between them when first they had encountered each other; a glow that had been carefully fanned into a flame of hatred as Hao subtly worsened the trials of Funbari's school for the green-haired boy.

Lips stiffly pressed with anger, the green-haired boy glanced first towards him, and then away in constrained anger. The fury that he did not, it appeared, dare to channel aloud was evident in every single strained motion that he made, from his abruptly rising to his feet to the stride that he employed in moving away from the table, all without bestowing upon the dark-haired shaman a second glance.

"Lyserg, where are you going?" Alarm sparkled in Ryu's gaze as he, too, rose to his feet, stumbling awkwardly after the slender young boy. "Lyserg, was it the pudding? I swear that I won't make you that flavor of pudding again, just please speak to me…"

A tiny curve crooked Hao's lips into a smile as he appraised their departure with approval. "And that's the last of them…" He murmured under his breath, elbow pressing sharply against the smooth bend of the plastic chair. A careless eye flicked to glance towards a remaining cherry-haired figure to his left, and the addition came almost instantaneously to his lips, "Except for you. Yoh's gone," Though he did not look to her again, the comment had obviously been intended for her. "Why haven't you followed him? Aren't you at all afraid that Anna will take him back from you?"

"I…" A furious blush had begun to steal across her features, though her eyes were scrunched up with the effort of suppressing it. "I trust him." She said at last. "I trust him when he says that he loves me, and if he changes his mind, well..." She affected a careless shrug, though her shoulders were too stiff with tension to carry it out effectively. "I will have," the apprentice fortuneteller said softly, "been grateful for the time that we have spent together."

Head tipped to the side in a pose of attentiveness, Hao laughed at her words, though the sound rang without malice, and a direct truth that was rare in any of his actions. "Modesty." The word was dismissed with a careless flick of his gloved fingers. "You really are nothing like Anna, are you…" The bare whisper was less of a question than a contemplative comment. "Interesting…" The shaman said nonchalantly, an eye studying her with bright interest—

"Leave the child alone."

A clarion voice, bell-like with innocent precision, rang over the table. Seemingly emerging from the midst of nowhere, a wheelchair was carefully veered through the narrow twists and turns of the cafeteria to arrive before Hao's own.

It was a curious contraption. Certainly the shape in itself appeared to be that of a wheelchair, for lack of better words to describe it. However, a metallic sheet of thick, worn bronze appeared to have been molded over it, lending it the appearance of a coffin with a smiling figurehead carved where the head of the denizen within must have rested. Ordinarily, the window that allowed the features of the girl within was closed. Today, however, it exposed the delicately appealing countenance of a girl who appeared little more than ten, with silvery tresses that hung past her shoulders with a weight that implied it must reach far past her slender waist at the least, and eyes that were hypnotically colored.

Funbari's prideful child prodigy; Jeanne.

"Seducing children to darkness now, Hao?" The lack of a title-suffix was enough to illustrate the wordless hatred that she, too, seemed to bear for him. And if that were not sufficient, the calm, unswayed venom of her tone would have solidified any certainties on that score. "I did not think that you would bend so low so quickly."

"You know as well as I that no seductions are necessary on my part." The boy said carelessly, fingers still splayed easily over the tip of his chair as he posed in a stance of urbane comfort. "Do not let your irrational hatreds blind you to truths, Jeanne – I thought you had said that that was your business in the first place? Dealing in truths?"

"My business is to correct the warped truths that you create." The tiny figure corrected him tranquilly. "No, Marco—" this was directed towards the tense blond man at her side, who had growled faintly and taken a step towards the shaman at his words "-do not let him disturb you. He means to throw us off of our guard, that's all. There will be a reckoning, Hao," She had returned her attentions to him. Her huge, childish eyes appeared still more childish as she watched him, but in that immaturity was a clear purpose that she would be unafraid to implement when the time came. "Do not think that you can escape the judgment of God."

"Your followers call you the Iron Maiden." He said, a statement that seemed wholly out of place with the pronouncement of judgment that she had newly placed upon him. Careless eyes raked the tiny form with an insolent ease, and the dark eyes fixed upon her features lilted with a cruel humor. "I wonder why that is?"

"Because I know and am justice." She spoke with a quiet conviction, raising her gaze to meet his own. And from the moment that they clashed, those childlike eyes never wavered from his. "I know justice, and will enforce it wherever it is necessary, with the iron hand of God behind me to guide me." Her sharp gaze strayed from his, to wander over the tense group that had surrounded him, and now glared at her tautly, ready to defend their master to the death. All… save one.

Tamao, tremulous and trembling finely by Hao's side, made some small sound of keening distress, a tiny sound that slipped from her tongue awkwardly. Though Jeanne's eyes never left Hao's, the dark-haired boy noticed it immediately, and smiled.

"Now look what you've done." He spoke with a debonair reproach, placing a light hand upon the tips of Tamao's delicately rose hair where it brushed against her wan, slender shoulders. "Do you always frighten young maidens in your search for justice, Iron Maiden?" The title with which others showed the silver-haired girl deferment became little more than a slur upon those faintly sneering lips. "Or _is_ that your justice; something born from fear that goes only a little farther than its beginnings?"

Lifting her head in a gesture of arrogance no less potent than his own, she did not deign to answer, and grinning with silent accomplishment, he swept past her easily, a guiding hand slipping into Tamao's own tiny palm with ease.

His followers, taking his actions as a signal, rapidly diffused into the crowd with long-trained ease, leaving Jeanne and her group to linger by the recently emptied table alone.

"You should not fear her." Glancing with a quick fear upwards, roseate eyes met his own richly silt-colored ones with her usual timidty, and would have looked away again if a slender hand had not reached downwards to grip her chin with resolute firmness, holding her in place.

"But then again," Hao said softly, breath a warm comfort upon her skin, "You fear everything, don't you?"

His tone was oddly gentle, though there was a subtle malice to his words that she, in her careless stillness, did not catch. "That's why you cling to Yoh; because he fears nothing. And that's why you sometimes hold yourself away; because you're afraid of holding him back."

Abruptly, he released her and watched in amusement as she stumbled. "Poor girl." He said contemptuously, his honeyed voice filling her ears and her world as she moved unconsciously, blindly, away. "I don't suppose you know that just by existing, you hold him back. Ah well." And too suddenly he was close again, grasping her hand and smiling as though there had been nothing wrong between them. "You cannot help it, just as you cannot help being late to class if your feet continue to drag so." An amused eye followed the listless trail of her footsteps, and, ears burning, she hastened to match his pace, still silent, though full of the words that he had spoken.

"Are you really Yoh's brother?" She asked caustically, though the sarcasm stuck in her throat and rendered her sharp words a timid whisper. "The two of you are nothing alike."

"Eiha, you've been listening to him too much."

"Why do you think so?" It was a defiant challenge of sorts, masked in the careful disguise of a whisper.

His lips twisted into the faint curve of a smile. "Because we're more alike than he thinks. And," he said delicately, as they rounded a corner, "I think that he'll understand this soon enough, so you need not worry about holding him back."

He offered the girl a smile and, caught off-guard, she returned it with the unusual warmth that Hao inspired in all those he surrounded – though the passion was directed against him, more often than not. A faint blush suffused her features as her mind caught up with her actions, and she glanced down instinctively, away from him.

"You're very pretty, Tamao." The languorous indulgence of that tone was unmistakable, as though he bestowed the compliment upon her without care, and showed the truth of it all the more in that carelessness.

"Th- thank you." The pink-haired girl stammered, and blushed charmingly. Even such a short phrase was difficult to pry off of her tongue in his company; Hao intensified the young apprentice's awkwardness for reasons Tamao could not fathom.

"Why thank me for speaking the truth?" The shaman returned indifferently, though with a fire-bright smile that was simultaneously enchanting and razor-sharp with his usual intensity. "Surely Yoh, even with his penchant for being thanked, has tried to cure you of that little habit." And as the dark-haired boy smiled at her again, regally indulgent, Tamao felt the pulse that lay unseen beneath the milky-whiteness of her throat begin to quicken…

* * *

The sound of his footsteps echoed down the corridor, sounding an alarm within her ears long before his presence had darkened the corner in which she had taken refuge. Listlessly, her pace slowed from a run to a bare crawl, and then she did not move at all. If he did not find her now, he would find some opportunity at home to corner her again and to force from her the responses that would soothe his conscience. He had always been overtly concerned with the peace of that train of thought – that much in him, at least, she understood.

"Go away, Yoh… kun." Her voice was a flat monotone, a careless drone that dinned into his ears as he rounded the corner to find her. The title-suffix was added as an afterthought, cynically so; as though she were no longer certain that he deserved it.

She did not look to him as he drew nearer; refused to see the light, hesitant arches of his brows, and the softened curves of his face as he glanced at her in concern. As Yoh reached towards her, however, her body tensed; an unmistakable sign. Ignoring it, he stepped forward slightly, resting a hand lightly upon her shoulder.

"Anna," The boy said tentatively. His words were not laden with shyness as another's might have been, and yet there was some hesitance to it all the same – some unmistakable emotion that stopped his lips from saying more. "are you all right?"

She slapped it away, an automatic instinct that did not require much attention. "Go away." She repeated, resting her head against the wall. "I don't need you here." _I don't need you at all._ She wanted to say, but it would have been a lie as cruel and dreadful as any that she had ever spoke in order to get him to train, to be what he was now.

"You need someone, and why not me?" He asked reasonably. There was something bitter in the reverse of their situations; he speaking sense and she refusing to accept what had always been.

"Someone. Anyone." Even to her ears, her voice sounded raw. "Just not you."

"Anna!" He was exasperated, and not a little fearful; that was easily distinguished by the raggedness of his breath, the way that his body had folded to ward against any forthcoming blows she might deal. Clasping a slender shoulder beneath his hand again, the words slipped out before he could think better of them and modulate them. "Didn't you ever love me? If you did…" He was on unfamiliar ground now, and trying to get through with his usual carelessness and fumblefootedness that always seemed to put him into the right place. "If you did, I conjure you to tell me so. I ask it." He said the last words gently.

The itako's lip curled.

She whirled upon him, knocking his hand from her shoulder with the sheer force of her movement. In that moment, there was an untamed ferocity to her gaze, a blazing anger that did not permit childish, weak emotions such as forgiveness to permeate her gaze. It roared like thunder, rearing up like a flame, hungry, demanding the sacrifice of the stick-thin boy before her, the boy that she had raised from childhood to become what he was…

"_I love you_." She said coldly, precisely. But there was something dreadful in her admission, as though by saying it, she made it a weapon, a wielded thing that would cut him, pierce him to the core, even as it gave him what he desired most of her. "Is that what you wanted to hear of me? That I love you?" Though her eyes thrived with glowing anger, the tensely cut lines of her body posed another set of questions entirely: _Is that all you ever wanted, to ask that? If you had asked it sooner, would we still be together, would I have kept you, would things have been saved from what they are now? Why do you ask for me to bleed for you when you already have all that you need?_

He circumvented the other questions by answering only what she asked aloud. "Yes."

Simple, easy, honest; everything that he had ever been.

The two steps that she took towards him did not echo in the corridor – too softly taken, with a timidity that might have been Tamao's own. A rattling hush had fallen over her; she did not gleam with dangerous edges and a furious purpose any longer. The color had drained from her, as though fire had reduced her to little more than white skin stretched over ivory bones, with not even the security of coursing blood to safe her from that deathly silence.

_Yoh…_

He did not know whether his name had actually leapt from her lips; he was too occupied in this closeness, this heart-pounding intensity that crackled between them, and the sudden drowning-deepness of her narrow black eyes. He saw her lips move again, but the gradually building roar within his ears did not allow him to hear her words, only to experience the world as it must have been, with its overwhelming silence and stillness that festered the beginnings of war…

She thought, a little dizzily with the weight of her power, that it would be so easy to brush her lips across his own. She'd seen it done on the television, and it seemed a simple enough thing, for all that the actors made such a grand fuss of it. She would do it, and it would be simple and easy and quickly over – but it would remind him of what he had lost when he had given her up, and that was all that she wanted of him.

But she could not.

The memory of Hao's hands against her wrists, Hao's silent, wicked smile drew her back, and subtly, she recoiled against the likenesses to Hao that she could see in Yoh's gentle features, and the childishly sweet curve of his lips that Hao mimicked to perfection. Lost in those memories, she could not remember crying out, but she must have, to have allowed her hands to stray and lash out.

Lost in dreams of his own, he did not see the movement of her hand as it was raised; nor did he see how it accumulated speed and approached his cheek palm thrust outwards, fingers slightly curled so that the nails, too, had been involved in the slap.

Nor could he see how, at the very last second, the hand hesitated slightly before flattening itself, dealing an openhanded slap rather than a sharp one that would leave its mark on his cheek.

The sound reverberated through the empty corridors, and for a moment, they stared at each other, neither speaking, more content in silence than they ever would be in the word-fumbling conversation that seemed would inevitably ensue.

"Anna—" He was the first to break the silence, as he was first to do most things. And for all of her life, she had been content to allow him to dictate her destiny, to become the fiancee that she desired in order to grant her the life that she had thought that she must want.

In these moments, however, things had changed.

Pivoting upon a slender heel, she moved with sharp rapidity down the corridor again, leaving him stranded and not a little lost. A sharp whisper emerged from her lips as she passed him, slicing at the air and destroying all sentimentality in the moment as she strode past him, businesslike and composed again.

_I love you, Yoh, but never forget that I can live without you._

* * *

**Author's Note:** This whole chapter was written listening to Hao's Image Song.. It really is one of the best songs on the SK CD; haunting and curiously Hao-like at the same time. Which explains why he gets so much time in this chapter, as opposed to the short little bit with Anna and Yoh at the end. xD

Gah – anybody know when Funbari no Uta (I think that's what it's called) is coming out in English? –dying to read it, but cannot do so at the moment due to a complete inability to read Japanese-

Read and review, as usual. This is probably going to be one of the last chapters where I stick the replies at the end; I'm working on my website, and when I'm done, the replies shall be there instead. But for now, look below. :)

**mrsyohasakura:** Wai. –cowers- As for Hao having feelings for anyone… well, if you believe that, you're probably going to have a bit of a nasty shock when chapter insertnumberhere comes around. ;) He really is the devil incarnated sometimes – I don't think he'd have feelings unless he thought that he could keep them under control, or if they proved to his advantage.

Wait and see, though.

**Koneko-Koneko:** -laughs- No worries; you reviewed in the end, didn't you? Nice to hear from you. What does sugoi mean? I've forgotten… -.-

**bow-down-to-keiko:** He did show total devotion to her all their lives. –pats him- It's why I love the pairing so much, part of the reason. And see, the thing is, in the AU, she never really gave him those moments of fond memory; every episode of their childhood really _did_ always end with him in tears. Anna has been under the impression that he wouldn't take her seriously if he didn't fear her – hence why she doesn't ever relent, and why he finds it easier to retreat into Tamao's company.

Does the clarification help?

**asn water: **Well, he's lived with the thought that Anna would be his and vice-versa all his life; can you blame him? As for Anna: I _adore_ Anna. I feel slightly less strongly about Tamao, and I love both the Asakura boys; so Anna will definitely be a part of the main pairing, though Tamao should be getting a larger part soon. –pokes her-

**Cindy Asakura**-winces- I am way late; hope the chapter was good, despite the distinct lack of Hao/Anna in this chapter. (Edited to add: replying to your review made me tack on a certain bit. :P Gah. See if you can spot it. –laughs-)

**No-name**: Yes, the other two characters need to have their own pairings. Either that, or they can die, but I don't fancy killing off Tamao, Yoh, Hao, or Anna at the moment.

**Akira:** Glad you like the chapter; how d'you think I managed with this one? It's got the first Hao/Tamao bits in it, after all…

**YamiandAnzu4ever:** -grins- That pairing's going to go through a _lot_ of angst before getting together. If they get together at all. Ahahaha. I am feeling evil. Thanks for reviewing, though.

**Akemi:** Yoh/Anna's pretty close to winning, but still rather distant as well, so you'll just have to hope.

**Dillpops:** Hao and JUN? –laughs- Ren would murder him and make him full of holes. Though it reminds me that I need to have her show up in the fic.. thanks. And yes, I see why Tamao would irritate someone; she's got no backbone. She'll undergo some development, however, as all my characters are probably going to do, so hopefully she'll get more tolerable as time goes on.

**Kawaii Koneko92:** -nose in air- Not at all. It's an _expensive_ excuse, as now I must buy all the manga and read them in order to keep up to date. –grin-

**SquirrelFraulein: **Ee.. don't cry, please? I feel the need to offer people tissues when that happens.. –offers tissue-

**Pinwheel of The Rainbow**: People like you make me feel guilty for not updating faster… which I suppose is a good thing. :) Thanks for reviewing, and now that I'm no longer sick, I'll try to update faster in the future.

**Kya:** Hao/Anna has a ways to go if it wants to win the poll. –says this dryly-

**thefutureMrs.Kaiba:** Even if I haven't seen the poll settle on any pairings yet, I'd say that this chapter was definitely dramatic. Hope you liked it. :D

**Helena-Jeanne-Chibi:** I'm sure your stories are fine. :) And if you don't like your summaries, all you need is a little practice. It took me three years to get mine straight. e.e And thank you for the compliments! Tell me if you ever spot any misspellings; I usually get overconfident and start typoing all over the place right about the seventh chapter of my stuff.

**KristiexxNguyen:** The voting goes on for another chapter, as it's even again. -.-; If it's even for ANOTHER chapter, I'll just decide myself. Mgeh.

**cherri-chan:** Okay, okay, you caught me mincing words… -shuffles feet and blushes- And no worries; I'm the pairing's fan, but I'm openminded to all other possibilities… I like Yoh/Tamao because if it happens, it'd be a mutual thing that would probably never fade. Have you read Funbari no Uta? –wants to, dreadfully-

And don't worry about too-long reviews; I think I wrote a page-long review to someone once… e.e

**Trisyl:** You voted? After everything you said? –resists urge to make sign that says "HYPOCRITE" and hang it around your neck-

..You know I don't mean it, right? And that I don't hate you for tying the sodding thing… again? x3

**XCanadianDevilX:** Whatever Hao wants, Hao gets… but he's playing it ambiguous in this chapter, see? –evil grin- So yes, Hao gets whatever Hao wants.. but are you sure you know who Hao wants?

**Hana:** I've always been a bit amused by the fact that Yoh and Anna named their daughter Hana; it's almost like calling Hao back from the grave and saying, "Here, possess this child." Which would make for an interesting fic. Which gives me a weird idea… Thanks for the idea. x3

**Bibliomaniac:** Tamao may very well break it; it's quite possible, as she's already half-smitten with Hao purely for his charm. And then again, she may turn out to have more sense than she is usually credited for and stay with Yoh. You'll see…

And I have a novel to work on! I don't have TIME for hundreds of chapters… not to mention patience… and creativity…

Alas. I am wretched. –pulls hair out- Although it is a temptation. When this ends, chances are I'll write a sequel just because I cannot stand putting things to rest and leaving them there.

**Kali Kamiya: **Yoh still cares about Anna, yes, but I think you've been reckoning without Anna's hurt pride… -evil smile-

I'm really enjoying writing this. If only because of the interesting reactions that I get from people.

**Kokoromizunokaze:** Twelve days after your review. –cringe- I really am too slow with this.

**MG8:** Aww… poor Tamao. She's wilting from neglect. –pets her- And Anna/Yoh has its good points, but… -laughs- You'll just have to wait and see like everyone else.

**Starwing:** Alas, o anonymous voter, you shall just have to wait and see whether your pairing will make it.

**Cam:** Your pairings were in the chapter… sort of. –crooked, evil sort of grin- What'd you think?

**I don't know:** Your vote has been duly noted, though so has the fact that your muse is part of you and inclined to agree with you when it comes to the important things. Next chapter, hopefully, there won't be another tie.


	8. Of Boys and Bitterness

**You're Mine**

**Summary: **AU _"Just remember that you're mine." _It begins with those words, but rapidly becomes something deeper and far more complicated than a mere promise to get back the boy of her dreams...YohxAnnaxHaoxTamao.

**Disclaimer: **I own only the first five volumes in Shaman King, though I shall own all of them… when they come out. Alas. Woe.

**Author's Note: **Ahahaha… I have updated on time! I am triumphant and thoroughly smug! n.n I've also finished – rather ahead of time – both my Anna/Lyserg and Faust/Manta entry for _Every Pairing Under the Sun._ :D Life is good. As for the votes…

Votes: 32 Yoh x Anna, 12 Yoh x Tamao, 30 Hao x Anna, 14 Hao x Tamao.

And Yoh/Anna, Hao/Tamao wins by a very, very close vote. –peers- Wow. Too close, almost.

Alternate endings will happen, because I like the idea of YohTamao, HaoAnna too. Of course I do; or else I would have never entered this ficlet with a mind open to the possibility that it would happen.

I wasn't too fond of how this chapter was written; hopefully you guys won't mind going through it. I promise you that the next chapter will be far more… iiinteresting… -grin-

Here's chapter eight for the moment, though! Enjoy as much as you can. :)

* * *

Chapter Eight: Of Boys and Bitterness

"Hoeeee, Tamao!"

The words were spoken in a familiar tittering drawl; that of Ely ("Call me Ely-chan!" she had insisted upon first encountering the rose-haired girl, features blossoming into a smile) and her three best friends. They were not, as far as Tamao was familiar with the concept, Tamao's best friends, but nevertheless, for their exceeding kindness in having guided her throughout the school upon her first day in attendance, she was remarkably fond of them. They were the ones to whom she showed flashes of her other side – the side that could speak out, could laugh without restraint.

For the entirety of her life, she had been surrounded by remarkable people. Master Yohmei, who was one of the most successful fortunetellers in Japan; his wife Mistress Kino, who was a vividly striking itako, even in her old age; Anna-sama, who appeared to be following in her teacher's footsteps, and, of course, Yoh… And in their brightness, she had been only a dim little thing, a seedy creature in the background that only Yoh's efforts had roused into a fragile bloom.

But her present companions did not shine; only glowed as she did, though with none of her own tremulousness. They showed her, not what she wanted to be, but part of what she could be if only she put her hand forth to attempt it. And so she loved their company.

"Tamao-chan?" A light tap to the side of her head drew her back to reality, and she grew aware that Ely was grinning at her conspiratorially. There was a notorious hook to the corner of her lip, a slight lift that might have been mistaken for condescension in a less kind girl. "Dreaming of a certain someone, Tamao-chan?" The violet-haired girl inquired slyly, her mouth widening into an appearance of clandestine humor. Her eyes sparkled with the charming mirth that Tamao herself had never learned – a blaze of sociability that, in Tamao, was merely a tiny flicker that hinted more at illusory things than at the corporeality of kindness.

"N- no…" Her cheeks heated, and color flooded through their pale porcelain, daubing her face thickly with crimson. All around her, Ely and her friends roared with laughter, though it was kind – they had all suffered through their boy-obsessions, and knew to treat this one as they had all others. Though she was, in comparison to their antediluvian friendship, a mere newcomer, nevertheless they accepted her readily as part of their group, and regarded her as such.

"It's no worry." The other girl assured her with the endearing smile that was her trademark. "All of us go through that phase. When Mina-chan," She indicated, with a lift of her chin, the shamefaced blonde to her left, "had it, she came down with it so badly that she can't even stand to look at him in the hallways even now without wanting to tackle him and…" A wry shrug shifted through her shoulders, and the girl smiled a trifle dryly. "And I promise that we won't tell Yoh-sempai about it."

The rapid influx of information had, apparently, confused the fortuneteller girl, who now frowned, a light crease digging into her brow. "Mina-chan liked Yoh?"

Now Ely laughed openly, with only the faintest inflection of contempt for Tamao's confusion. "_No_, silly!" Companionably, she slapped at Tamao's shoulder, and affected not to notice when the tiny girl stumbled in her steps with the heaviness of the blow. "You needn't play innocent with us; you know very well that we've all gone through that phase. Remember? I told you a while ago what happened each time!"

_You tell me too much_. Tamao wanted to say, even timidly, but held her tongue. Where others had mastered communication, she had been bestowed with the gift of silence, and used it now more than ever in the midst of her hollow confusion. This, however, did not prevent the thoughts from searing her mind, moving with sleek determination through the chambers of her brain before shifting away again, disappearing into depths whose bottom she could not see.

"Wh- what do you mean?" She managed to say.

A tiny fleck of pity lanced through the other girl's gaze, accompanied by an unfamiliar confusion, as she responded, "Why, you have a crush on Hao-sama, don't you?"

* * *

After that tempestuous meeting, Yoh had retired to the confines of his next classroom ,readying himself in more ways than one for the next lesson, though his mind was hardly upon the subject so much as his recent memories. And it was there that Hao found him – the twins shared every class, as they had shared many other things in their childhood, and as always, Hao had had the lion's share of attention in the class, as well as the larger portion of decent grades. But that did not matter now – _Yoh_ had what the other boy desired; knowledge of what had ensued in the meeting between the boy and his former fiancé. With a drawling tone that did not hint at the eagerness beneath his words, he inquired, "How did it go?"

Conceit veiled beneath the guise of a benevolent question probed indifferently at Yoh's shields. In ordinary circumstances, he might have laughed and permitted it; the boy was fond of his brother, for all the other's looks of arrogant mystery and considering condescension, as though he were forever in possession of knowledge that Yoh himself did not retain. Now, however, there was a new tautness to his body that did not escape Hao's razor-sharp study, a tautness that lent an adult grimness to the poise of his mouth and the entire movement of his body.

There was also a stain of rapidly deepening crimson upon Yoh's cheek – a multicoloured bruise whose mark seemed unlikely to fade. Smiling secretively at a memory of his own, a hand brushed his own cheek as he arched a brow at his brother, awaiting a reply.

"Ototo?" He drawled languidly, and was not surprised to see his brother whirl towards him, eyes glittering with danger. "Is there something wrong?" But no – there was more to the situation now than mere wrongness; for all that the boy's hair was unkempt, his cheek vivid with Anna's less than loving mark, there was something else. An exultance that had not yet been acknowledged by his mind and made ready for joy, perhaps; triumph that surpassed his understanding so that he did not consider himself able to acknowledge it.

_The question should not have been 'is there something wrong', so much as 'is there something right'._

"Something happened, didn't it." The question was not precisely that any longer – Hao possessed instincts as well as the knowledge of two lives prior to this one, and with them he saw what someone with only one life could not have; the tiny kernel of delirious contentment that suffused Yoh's thoughts. But there was more to that than the words implied; there was something odd about that blitheness…

"She said that she loves me." The boy murmured at last, and a faintly fixed smile drifted up to inhabit his features with a curious, ghostly joy – bleak and beautiful at once. And at once, Hao saw that he had been mistaken – there was no triumph to Yoh's gaze, only a confusion that bordered upon madness. "She said that she loves me."

"And isn't this what you've wanted of her all along?" The question was seemingly artless, and his twin did not glance up to see that the long-haired shaman's gaze was anything but guileless – that the profound depths were filled with an intricate craft born of age and experience. "That she should love you?"

"Not like this." His voice was weary. "Never, never like this. You don't understand, you weren't there. You didn't hear her say it. The _way_ that she said it."

_She said that she loves me, but she said it in the tone that you might use to hate me._

* * *

"M-me?" A furious blush composed more of fury than of embarrassment overtook her features, and momentarily, her cheeks had grown so suffused with crimson that they virtually glowed with the color. "In love with _Hao_-kun? How could you think so?" Her countenance glowed bright scarlet now, and she clung all the tighter to the notebook that was ever by her side. "I'm in love with Yoh! Kun." She added hastily, as though fearing that he might round the corner and come upon her in this shameful instance. But a treacherous modicum of her mind could not help but drift away to remembrance of long sienna-hued strands that swayed with an adult elegance that Yoh, in his childish adorability, could have never attained. And regardless of her efforts, it would not willingly be dismissed and put into a corner again.

Airily, Ely waved a hand, as though dismissing the aforementioned shaman's twin. "Yoh's all very well, pretty cute in his own way," The girl said facetiously, and tossed her hair momentarily, breath escaping her lungs in a longing sigh. "But Hao has that sexy look going for him – you could tell them apart even if he cut his hair and styled it like Yoh's. And really, who could blame you for wanting to collect a set of Asakura brothers? They _are_ pretty good-"

"_I'm in love with Yoh!"_ She did not realize the repercussions of her statement until she had spoken it aloud, eyes shut with creased humiliation, fists clenched, arms in an X over her chest, as though seeking to ward Ely's statements away. Reluctantly allowing an eye to drift open, the fortuneteller realized that she had spoken the words aloud, and flushed a still deeper hue of crimson in embarrassment.

_I should have known to predict my own future today before coming to school…_

"No one," Ely said at last, and the temperature of her voice had lowered distinctly in friendliness. The deep violet of her eyes was translucent with a new dislike as she regarded her friend. "can be _that_ in love. Don't yell, Tamao – what has that silly boyfriend of yours been teaching you about manners? – it's rude and it makes my ears hurt. In any case, I was only commending you on your taste and your luck. Hao is beautiful." Laying a considering hand upon her friend's shoulder, she smiled brittlely and said, "If you have a choice, you should go for Hao. Yoh's only a little cute, and that will fade when he goes through high school; it always does. He doesn't have very much else to commend him, always sleeping in class, always—"

She wrenched her arm free of her companion's grip, and was faintly pleased to see a sparkle of shock dart through the other girl's gaze at little Tamao's less-than-reticent actions. "Yoh," she said levelly, never allowing her voice to rise above a level that might be deemed more loud than conversational. Nevertheless, there was a faint raspiness to the manner with which she spoke, as though she were unaccustomed to conversing at such a high volume. "will be a success at whatever he likes. He is strong." Her lashes dipped in embarrassment as she allowed her eyes to shutter to a close.

"And I love him."

"Love." For the first time during their vast time of acquaintance, Ely-chan's voice held some vestige of ancient bitterness that did not suit the girl's face that she wore with such supple grace. "If you believe all that silly propaganda about love, then I am very sorry for you, Tamao." And indeed, her voice held some trace of that sorrow, although it was tempered by a sudden condescension that the pink-haired girl had never before seen in her companion.

"And why is that?" Though her comment had been intended for defiance, it was difficult to break too many of her old habits, even in the defense of her… of Yoh. Her voice was childishly humble, and broke a little with the pressure that had beset her. "I love Yoh, and he loves me."

"Boys," said Ely bitterly, "are faithless things. You cannot trust them." Imperiously, she sought Tamao's gaze and found it, holding it with a cool anger. "But you do," she added, and her tone was cloying with pity. "Don't you."

"Hai." Tremblingly, she raised her own crimson-hued eyes and faced her friend. "I do."

The bell rang, summoning students to their classrooms and their last classes of the day. But Ely and Tamao, caught up in their moment, hardly noticed as the students began to filter into the classroom…

* * *

Allowing his eyelids to fall so that his eyes were mere slits, Hao gazed momentarily towards his brother before reaching out with a gloved hand to lightly brush Yoh's temple. The gesture in itself was purely theatrical – the gift itself did not require contact, though he loved it all the same.

Immediately, he cupped the thought that reigned primarily within Yoh's mind within fingers that were suddenly trembling. And he did not require his brother's secondhand tale any longer; for he _saw_ the scene that replayed itself within his mind, over and over again until madness dawned…

_I love you. Is that what you wanted to hear of me?_

_I love you. love_

_Love you Forget_

_Never forget live without you I can_

_Die please let me die_

_understanding she loves me_

_Pink hair beautiful shining like the sun only darker and now_

_they are together, they're one and the same,_

_which is which and which can't I live without?_

The splintered and fragmented thoughts soared through Hao's mind like peregrine eagles, wings splayed, plumage brilliant with something a little brighter than sunlight; a little lovelier than darkness.

A last thought soared through his veins, pulsing with a winding intensity that charmed even as it drove him mad…

And Hao expelled a breath, smiling. Only the attentive might have noticed the slip of his mask; the way that his rich, sensual laughter broke a little upon the higher notes, and was more fragile than usual in its quality; more glass than diamond, and chipped, besides.

"She loves you, does she?" His voice was low, contained, and not a little contemptuous. Deft fingers coursed momentarily through his hair, a quick flickering gesture that was here and gone. "Do you really think that she does?"

Sharply, Yoh glanced up, his calm still affixed to his features in a tranquil smile that did not befit the confusion of his gaze.

"Why?" He inquired, tone cool, striving to match the disdain that Hao himself employed with such ease. A flicker of humor lanced through his gaze, as it always did, and he repeated, "Why? Do you want me for yourself or something?"

An abrupt glimmer of shock darted through the other boy's gaze – Yoh was too intent upon his brother's expression to notice that faint discoloration – but it vanished again, smoothed away by the calm assurance of his manner. "Interested? In you, romantically?" Rich contempt had thickly daubed every word, so that the syllables cradled an emotion so heavy with disdain that it would have curdled milk in an instant. Nevertheless, despite the unhelpfulness of his voice, there was a glitter of amusement within his gaze that did not have everything to do with derision – as though there was a paralleling irony that only he himself espied. "Well, you really should be re-tallying the odds of that idea, shouldn't you? I have a duty to produce beautiful children for the world to adore as much as they do me." The words were spoken dryly, though they were not without their own level of seriousness. "Simply because you've had two girlfriends and I haven't gone for any means nothing."

As though to emphasize the degree of truth within his words, seven pairs of eyes surveyed the unmoving pair from the doorway, all of them fixed upon the long-haired figure who had sprawled across the chair directly parallel to Yoh's own. They retreated immediately as Hao cast them a disdainful glance, and from beyond the wooden barrier, there came tiny squeals of the swooning joy of fangirls – a tinny sound that was rapidly drowned out by the resonance of the school bell, signalling the beginning of class.

"So who are you interested in, then?" Yoh demanded, heedless of his timing and the students that had begun to filter into the classroom. A flare of incensed anger darted through his usually level gaze, though he controlled it with only the slightest hint of difficulty. "Anna? If you're so interested, why don't you ask her out yourself!" There was a lame jibe in that statement, and one that trembled and fell flat – the boy had never been adept with malice, and now was no exception.

Nevertheless, Hao appeared to look thoughtful. The rotundity of his even features served only to accentuate the sensual malice of his smile. "Hm... you may have an idea there, ototo." He said, amusedly. There was so vivid an innocence to that statement that for a moment, the contents of the words themselves escaped Yoh's thoughts in a flood of relief. As comprehension dawned, however, relief crept away again, to be replaced by a renewed anxiety. "I think," The shaman continued, as though oblivious to the emotions that played over Yoh's taut features, "that I might do so indeed. It's not as though she isn't strong enough." _In the same way that Tamao is _not_ strong._ Though the words went unspoken, nevertheless Yoh thought that he could hear them in the implicit, secret way that the other boy smiled.

There was a pause. The teacher was quick to take advantage of it, as well, passing out handouts to each of the twins and instructing them, in his reedy, blind manner, that they were to complete the handouts by tomorrow, and to do it for homework if they did not conclude the activity in class.

"She'll never agree." Yoh said softly, and for a moment, the control that he had taken such care to exert over himself waver; the pulse of anger was audible within his voice. His fingers convulsed over his pencil, subtly contracting and loosening until the metal object hardly resembled the straight item that it had once been. "Never." But the words were spoken with a curious hesitance, as though he sought more to convince himself than the boy that rested, smiling languidly, to his side.

"She thinks you're evil," Yoh said into the hush of the classroom, though it seemed that only his brother caught the words, "and sometimes, I'm not too far from agreeing with her."

"Well," The shaman said, with only the faintest burr of amusement to inflect his words and imbue them with a curious malice, "she thought that you hung the stars and the moon; and look how that turned out."

"She-" Yoh began, only to pause again, blinking owlishly in confusion. "What?"

A glance of pity overcame Hao's companionable contempt for a moment, and Yoh was not certain which was worse; to see his brother's disdain, or to know that the other boy thought him so weak.

"She thought, once," The boy said, and his voice took on a dreamy tone – the voice of a storyteller in the midst of a fairy tale, "that you had potential; that you could become what she wanted. And she fell in love with that ideal, I think. Remarkably, that illusion lasted several years, even with her capability to read minds. It's only recently that you successfully dissuaded her from that belief."

"O- only recently?" He could not help but stammer now, weak with confusion and a lack of understanding that bordered upon obscenely exasperating.

"Hai…" The glance that the long-haired shaman turned towards his brother was cool with amusement at the wasted opportunity. "She loved you." Hao said softly. "And though she may think she does still, the only one she's deceiving is herself."

"And you, of course," He added as an afterthought. "But think about it – are you so certain that she can tell the truth if she herself doesn't know what it is?"

"Anna knows what she's doing." He spoke the words stoutly, though they were said like a prayer, a mantra, rather than a resolute truth.

The shaman's words were laden with satisfaction as he replied: "Not now, she doesn't."

Yoh fell silent, eyes hollowed, gaze drifting away into space, uninterrupted by the pestering of the teacher. And even as the bell rang again, signifying the end of the school day, he did not move.

Hao, however, rose to his feet with a smile that rimmed a kind of malevolence that he appeared to reserve to toy with Yoh alone. "May you understand, ototo." He murmured within the boy's ear as he passed him on his way out of the classroom. No one saw how Yoh winced, with a faint, slight shudder, in response to that statement.

* * *

**Author's Note:** -vaguely pities Yoh- Alas, for he is cute and torturable, and I greatly enjoy taking advantage of both. :D And Ely, in case you're wondering, is based on someone I know in real life. She's a one-time OC; maybe more, depending on how Tamao turns out.

Leave me a review… and here're last chapter's review replies:

**Black Hikari:** Hnn.. thank you. :) There will be, of course, unnecessary stress and tension and probably flirtations. Hao does have to keep up with his fangirls.

**Soralover1: **Thanks. :)

**asn water:** -prods them- Alas, for they are unmoving as stone. Woe unto the public.

**Kaorien Otome:** I believe my email's on my profile if you're really so keen to know. –laughs- And ouch… I'm sorry. I keep copies of practically everything everywhere; my friends have been swamped with virii of late and I don't want to risk the same fate. I've got too much to lose. And you think it's a roller coaster now? –laughs- You just wait.

**Lalelulelo:** -waits-examines fingernails-

-waits more-

-pause- Are you quite done yet?

Now, the reason I'm keeping the pairings open is not because I'm spineless. The fact is that I promised the voters that the decision would be theirs. To remove it at this junction seems to be a witless sort of thing to do, breaking both a promise and causing everybody unnecessary stress. Feel free to disagree, but I don't need to come home to a set of insults. And since you seem keen on doing me good, here's my advice back: medicine is taken better with sugar. Just—consider it, would you?

**Bibliomaniac:** If it's any help, he doesn't mean to be two-timing. –pets poor Yoh- He's just a little confused – more than a little so. –insert excuses for Yoh here- And do you really think it's filler? –benevolent smile- Once we get a little further into the chapters, you'll understand that I try to make absolutely nothing 'just' filler. –rubs hands together in a rather evil fashion- And wah; why does everybody see him so shallowly? He's a confused, confused boy, and I loves him. And I sincerely hope that he's not out of character. –vaguely anxious look-

As for Hao; Hao is ALWAYS evil. A Hao without evil is like a night without darkness. He has it in him to be good, because his intent is good. He's just—warped. And that's how I like to play him. And capable of love? It depends on your definition of love, really. He's capable of feigning it, but he will never give himself wholly over without many, many years. Look at what happened with Matamune, after all.

And don't worry about Anna; she can take care of herself. ;) Sort of.

Remember, Tamao's just had the fulfillment of one dream. She'll be feeling on top of the world right about now. To have a dark mysterious stranger take an interest in her (and let's face it, I think most of us have had the dream of the dark mysterious stranger) is probably just another thing to top it right now.

And do you really think that anyone can resist Hao if he puts his mind to it? Another one of the reasons why the Asakura brothers don't get along as well as they ought…

**Dillpops: **Well yeah, I guess I'm no different from the crowd when I like Hao, but… Ren's neat too. :D He just strikes me as a driven force with nowhere to go, whereas Hao has both direction and force – and a knowledge of how to apply it.

Manta will be given a task, I think. –ponders- At this point in planning, there are several ways the plotline could go, and I'm thinking through all of them before making a decision. However, in at least three, Manta's getting a role of his own. :D

**Starwing: **Gotcha. :)

**Inulover4eva:** Poor Anna – alas, she must suffer through at least twenty more chapters before I finally let her settle down with anyone. –innocent look- And I haven't even finished planning out the fic yet… -.-; And I haven't totalled up the votes at the moment (I will in a second, and you've probably already read the results in the Author's Note, but I always write my replies before I write anything else, so I don't know yet), but just know that there's going to be an alternate ending, regardless, kay?

And – what, being in love? Just a bit, although not exactly the things that Anna's going through at the moment. And I find that conflicts are just contrasts between people – if you have a clear image of your characters, and you interact them enough, eventually you'll get conflicts. :D

**Jasminefly:** Your wish is my command, O disembodied voter. –grin-

**Rayless-Demon:** Ack, I envy you. I have some of the Spanish scans, but I can't read Spanish. X.x And hey, Hana's a little kid, while Anna is… Anna. Who wouldn't be scared?

**Split Butterfly:** To be honest? The too-shy bother me, too. –vague guilt- That's one of the reasons I had Tamao as the fourth corner; because I want to develop her and make her less shy. She has so much potential, but never really uses much of it in fanfic. And I promise you – whatever pairing crops up in the end, I'll pull it off with as much flair as I can muster. ;D

Aaah, another HoroTamao pairing fan? That pairing is /cute/. I have different ideas for Horo in this fic, though. Maybe when I get Wallets and Sodas done…

**KristiexxNguyen:** **-**laughs- You have at least an alternate ending to look forward to, at the very least. You know that, don't you? And of course I'll continue! I have twenty-some chapters to write, still…

**Meisha:** You're welcome and thanks yourself. :) –loves drama-

**Trisyl:** Nyeah, shut it, you. I'll not-make-up my mind if I like, even if it IS you. :P And gah! Typos! –runs off to fix it- I also like Hao, although I know he's out of character in this. I'm working on it! Anna will regain her sanity sooner or later. If she doesn't, chapter twenty-four has gone to Hell.

Hey, you know I love hinting. :D

I added that first bit about Tamao in this chapter for you. T.T Hope you're happy; fortuneteller-girl is now on her way to being developed.

I know! I have suddenly conceive a mad love for our beloved Iron Maiden. After I wrote that chapter, I was suddenly seized with the urge to write HaoJeanne fics. Which I thankfully didn't give in to.

…-cough-doesn't reply to that bit-

I know, I know, but it was getting long and I got rather lazy and I didn't really want to give too much away… -prods fingers together-

Whee! Someone noticed my apparent subtlety! –dances around in glory-

**Kawaii Koneko92: **Aww… that's kind of you to say. n.n –feels special herself- Hope this chapter was as good as the last one.

**Tippy-chan:** Hee – thanks. :) I don't really think that I got my act together until last chapter, but I'm glad that you enjoyed it all the same. And okay; your vote has been noted.

**Koneko-Koneko: **Ahh… so that's what it meant. n.n' I need to work on my Japanese. And I've updated in a week! For the first time in months… -.-;

**Kago:** I know! –loves Hao- I'm thinking about writing a Hao-centric, second-life fanfic called _Courtship_. It's HaoOC, which I usually hate, but I really like the concept in this one…

**Snow-girl:** That's a question with a bit of a complicated answer. Right now she likes him the way you'd fall in love with a movie star.

**Soul:** Your vote has been noted – and thanks. :)

**SquirrelFraulein**: Soft side? Are you crazy? –laughs- Love makes many people soft, but that's because they turn it into another side of themselves. Anna doesn't get soft with love because she accepts everything about herself, and doesn't let herself get worked up just because she's affectionate. But I love scenes like this – such angst! –pokes them lovingly- And… oO; Butter?

**anime-obsession260:** oO; Okay… may you find a Yona fic to read if this turns out Anna-Hao. :) And there'll be an alternate Yohna ending if it turns out Hana anyway. –prods her plan mournfully- So much work…

**bow-down-to-keiko:** Yohmao. –mouth twitches- I'm sorry, that is just the _funniest_ shortening I've ever heard. Yohmao – what a weird word. And Anna /could/ live without him – as a vegetable, hooked up to a machine for the rest of her life. Hmm… -sprouts an evil grin-

**Cherri-chan:** Sure, I'll take your vote. :) And I've never been sure what the definition of fluff was – could you explain it to me? And aah – you are vengeful. Well, he's already gone through something of it when that Anna/Hao scene happened, remember?

Anna/Hao isn't as uncanon as some of the others – we know from both the manga and the anime that Hao has the capability to be interested in Anna. What scares me – seriously scares me – is the pairing of any two characters who've probably never even spoken in the anime. -.-; Unless they have a long chapterfic to themselves in which they can develop.

**BloodThirstyPacifist**: Thank you. :)

**No-name**: Thanks t'you too. n.n

**Cindy Asakura:** Snh, snh, snh… you'll see.. :D

**Kryah:** Wow; you're the first Tamao/Hao fan I've seen that mentioned Tamao/Hao only, without saying anything about Anna/Yoh. -o


	9. What Must Be Done

**You're Mine**

**Summary: **AU _"Just remember that you're mine." _It begins with those words, but rapidly becomes something deeper and far more complicated than a mere promise to get back the boy of her dreams...YohxAnnaxHaoxTamao.

**Disclaimer: **I own… one Shaman King fanart posted online, and loads more _not_. Harhar?

**Author's Note: **Finished my really really too-long RenxAnna entry for _Every Pairing Under the Sun!_ Next is supposed to be RenxNichrome.. Wah..

Anyway, this chapter is where… things go wrong and things go right for our beloved characters. Since I've written it, it's no longer my favorite chapter, but I'm still rather fond of it. Please note that when gateways of light are mentioned, they are strictly metaphorical (i.e. imagined) and therefore Yoh's not going anywhere. Do not yell at me because you are confused. :D

Enjoy!

(Note to readers of _Every Pairing_: Shall post up RenxAnna ficlet shortly. At the moment, however, am busy with a variety of things and I still want to trim it a bit before setting it loose online.)

* * *

Chapter Nine: What Must be Done

"Yoh?"

Unconsciously, the dark-haired boy glanced up towards his companion, eyes liquid with weariness, arms folded over his stomach. "Manta?" He murmured, the voice a pleading summons rather than an acknowledgement. "Manta, is—"

"Are you all right?" Manta could have bitten his tongue the moment that the statement left his lips, for in that moment, Yoh withdrew into himself again, producing the effervescent smile that had ever characterized him. Only someone as dedicated to his study as Manta could have noticed the tiny fractures in his smile, the way he wavered a moment in hesitation before standing. The Yoh that he knew and understood did not hesitate, but took steps and took everything in stride, with the assurance that everything would always work out.

This was not – could not be – Yoh, this dark-haired phantom with the hollow eyes and the fissuring smile.

"Hai, I'm fine." The boy said forcibly, and grinned laconically at his companion. "What, don't I look like it?"

"No." Said the shorter of the two, bluntly. "You look terrible."

"Ouch." And Yoh pressed a hand to his chest, laughing with his eyes half-shut so that—

"Don't laugh like that." Manta spoke a little more venomously than he had intended, leaning forwards to press his palms firmly against the engrained wood of Yoh's desk. "You look like your brother when you laugh like that."

Abruptly, the laughter vanished, leaving an acidic tang to the air. The shaman slumped a little, shoulders folding inwards. And when he raised his head again, his eyes were once again gently dead things, rotting rosepetals beneath sunlight.

Yoh said, quietly, with none of the rancor that another being might have employed, "If I were my brother, none of my problems would be mine."

"_What_ problems?" Manta looked infuriated at having things withheld from him. But, as though he had not heard his diminutive friend's outraged query, Yoh rose dreamily to his feet and moved out of the room with steps so soft that they left no sound behind him, though his voice trailed back; a tangible trail that hurt far more than his passage ever would.

"Don't follow me, Manta. I need to be alone."

And the tiny boy was left, stranded, in the path of Yoh's passage.

"Is Yoh-kun all right?"

The wispy murmur drifted out from behind him, but despite its quiet, the boy leapt into the air in startlement, whirling to deliver a stinging glare to its speaker. "Don't sneak up upon me!" He snapped at the pink-haired figure, though his anger rapidly dwindled upon seeing how she shrank away from his fury. "And no, Yoh's not all right. I don't know what's wrong with him, but—"

"Does it have anything to do with…" She glanced away, so that the rose that stained her features could be mistaken for maidenly modesty, rather than a deep flush of anger – of possessiveness over the first and only love that she had ever harboured. "Anna-sama?"

Manta pondered this. "Possibly." He said.

"What's going on?"

"If I knew," said the midget waspishly, "I wouldn't have to follow him to find out. Come on."

"Yoh-kun said not to follow him." She pointed out humbly, lagging behind.

"Well, we're certainly not going to find anything out about what's wrong with him if we hang around here." He retorted. Seeing that she was still drifting in hesitation, however, he added, persuasively, "Besides, if you hang around here much longer, the administrators of the school will come to check around the classrooms and yell at you for still being in the building."

_That_ got her moving.

* * *

He did not remember this bridge, but then, he did not remember many things; many things that Anna had once assured him that he had not done. (And had proceeded to punish him for, causing him to suspect that somewhere along the line, he had been had.) There were no memories that attached him to it, and so no memories that pained him as he approached it, felt the scrape of the metal beneath his fingers, and leaned over to peer into the murky waters beneath.

The scant few people who passed along that road during such a time of day regarded him with only a little curiosity, this adolescent boy leaning over the bridge to look into waters that had long ago been tainted with mortal filth. There were more beautiful sights to be had in the city – anarchy's capital in the world – and certainly this would have never been a tourist's selection. But he did not deign to tell them of his designs; indeed, he did not look to them at all. And so, belittled with the status of invisibility, they passed away, and he never knew the difference.

For he had fallen into some amalgamation of dreams and nightmares again, and, wandering in that twilight realm, there was no room for mortal contemplation…

* * *

"What's he doing?" She inquired nervously, fiddling with her hair in an unconscious gesture that she had adopted since beginning to go out into the city with Yoh on the excursions that had, somehow, only involved the two of them. It was a sign that she reserved exclusively for anxiety-regarding-Yoh, though Manta, being less faithful a Tamao-studier than a Yoh-studier, did not know this.

"How am I supposed to know? He's just standing there staring at the water."

Her mouth clenched a little in confusion before pursing to say, "I-is it very beautiful water?"

"Water is water!" The small boy bit out the words singularly; he liked Tamao, but not to the extent that he would tolerate her stupidity. There was _no one_ on Earth who could prompt him to do so. (Yoh didn't count; he was not so much stupid as unmotivated to bring himself up to Manta's level, though he ensured, each time, that the midget would know this, and would not be offended. Manta had yet to comprehend how he did this; another captivating trait in the boy's persona.) "He definitely couldn't drink it, if that's what you're asking. It's been polluted since 1957, when"

Hastily, she interrupted the beginning of his lecture: "Wait, wait! I think he's moving!"

"..He's not moving. He's standing there staring at the water like there's no tomorrow. There's _nothing_ to look at."

"There's him to look at." The rose-haired girl contended, lips curving into a smile.

"..Besides him."

"Well, we could always go up to him and stare at the water with him until he tells us what he's doing."

"I thought the whole point of this mission was not to let him know that we were here to watch over him? Remember, he told us not to follow him."

In an unusual moment of lucidity, she pointed out, with a wry smile, "He told _you_ not to follow him."

"It would apply to you, too, if he'd known that you were going to."

There was, she thought, something a little hurtful in that implication, as though Yoh had not considered her daring enough, intrepid enough, _Anna-like_ enough to follow him. But Manta did not mean it in that sense, and so she did not take it so. Nevertheless, there was a tiny shard of her thoughts that indicated this with a ferocity that she kept strictly reined within her own mind – she could not become as Anna had. There was simply some restriction within her persona that did not allow it.

"We're not exactly on the same level any longer, though, so you cannot be certain of that."

"Can too." Manta looked irritable – though he had not followed Yoh for all of his life as she had, nevertheless, there was a spark of passion in his research regarding the would-be shaman that she could not touch; it was something exclusively masculine that Manta, small and childish as he was, possessed nevertheless. "We're equal."

The side of her mouth curled upwards very slightly. "Really? Are you dating him?"

Instantly, as she said it, she regretted the deliberate, cutting manner of its speech, and flushed a brilliant crimson in regret. "Sorry, sorry, Manta-san." She whispered, ducking her head and risking a quick bow before peeking around the corner again. (He had not, yet, moved; nor did he appear to have heard any of her arguments with Manta.)

"It doesn't matter to me." Manta said gruffly.

_No_? She thought. _It would have, to me. It would have _hurt_ if someone had reminded me of that._ And that was something to be said about Anna; in all the years that she had been Yoh's fiancé, she had never once pushed this fact into Tamao's features. She had simply… been so, in a way that the fortuneteller had never wholly comprehended. It was as though she had taken the fact and rendered it part of her as nothing else could, enabling it to last as long as she did. It was one of the reasons that the pink-haired girl had not understood when Yoh had appeared to select her instead. How could he, when Anna still radiated everything that said that Yoh was hers?

But she had trusted in Yoh. And now, there was something wrong, and not even Anna could heal it.

_Anna_… 

She wondered, a little curiously, what the itako was doing at the moment.

* * *

All along the path home, Anna was deathly silent.

There was a resonant quality to that odd quiet, a depth that forced him away, warded her against even the most light-hearted of his conversational tactics. It was the sort of depth usually revealed only in moments of deepest anguish. But surely, she reasoned, she could not be all that hurt by Yoh's betrayal; he was hers, as he had always been, and would recognize that in time. And she would claim him again… as was only her right as his fiancé.

_But_…

The deadly thought lingered within her mind with vestiges of fragmented cold, glittering and dangerous, poised above her thoughts like a knife upon a string.

_There was something so raw in the way that he had looked at Tamao; as though he were a flame that would warm her, caress her, but never hurt her._

She would not have minded so – if he had not demonstrated a complete ability to hurt her at will, smilingly, with that casual little grin that implied that _It will be all right._ (He had always, she thought, been so beautiful when he smiled like that; Yoh would never attain the sensual poise of his brother, but there was something lustrously charming about his own candid demeanor that had never failed to captivate her.)

When she had been younger, there had been a hypnotic spell woven into that air, and she had trusted in its promises implicitly, with the assurance that they would never be broken.

_He is lazy, and a brat, but he will never break his promises._

And even as she had considered the question, it had fallen to pieces in her hands, into shards that drew thin scores of blood up through her skin, so that she could only look at them in bemusement.

_Can you break a promise that was never made, only implied?_

But there was no response in her thoughts.

Abruptly, she grew aware of a searing gaze burning into the back of her neck; a possessive brand whose owner had no right to place his mark upon her. Eyes narrowed in faint annoyance, she whirled back in her bus seat to meet Hao's amused, bold stare.

"Do I need to tell you to stop?" She asked, voice low with menace – and choked with what appeared to be tears. As his grin intensified, her vision burst into liquid blurs. Even as she spoke, she could see him mouthing the words back to her, mocking the childish, clumsy manner with which her tongue phrased the words, the careful restraint that had fractured, and rendered her features into a twisted mask as she fought to keep them back.

Blinded, still she snarled, "Stop it, this instant!" and cleared away the tears with two rough strokes at her eyes, though they had not yet fallen. (_Yoh_, said the suddenly audible pulse of her heartbeat, plaintively, and so quick that the name seemed to blur into itself_. Yohyohyohyohyohyoh_) Gold spilled over her hands as she attempted to push everything back, to push even the skin of her forehead back so that the tautness would restrain her eyes from blinking down and blocking the tears that were not quite there—

Abruptly, his smile faded, substituted with a look of innocent consideration, though there was a level seriousness in his gaze that implied condescension. "You're going to cry." He said, quite casually.

"I'm—not." She managed to grit out, from between clenched teeth and eyes that were beginning to water again. It had always been a source of pride for her, that no tears would alter the whites of her eyes to crimson, and no salt would be found on her pillow. "I won't."

"You're going to."

"I won't." There was a cool determination blistering its way through her words, and brusquely, she sat bolt upright, chin tilted upwards to face the front of the bus. (Hao smiled still, mouth a little broader in seeing the Anna that he knew.) Scathingly, as though she could not help but pick at the subject, she snapped, "And what would you know of tears, anyway?"

That grin vanished again, swift as the wingbeat of a butterfly, leaving him to blink at her with owlish purity and another expression that she could not interpret. "More," he said at last, levelly, "than you think."

The bus churned to a stop, groaning with the effort of ceasing its passage. Two of its passengers exited neatly through the mechanized door. On their way out, the male of the pair clasped her hand, running a lightly callused thumb over the rigid ivory of her knuckles.

Anna did not protest the intrusion. And Hao smiled.

* * *

_He saw a little boy, turning to smile brilliantly at an equally small girl, though she did not look so with her poise and the arrogance that she had retained even at that age. He could not remember, precisely, what he had said, but it had doubtless been impertinent – he remembered still the sting of her hand against his cheek, and cringed at the reminiscence. _(In reality, his hand drifted up to brush the pulsing crimson that served as his reminder for the day.) _But this memory was too common, scattered through his thoughts with the both of them at various ages, and so he turned onwards._

_There had been, once, a day in the snow when the both of them had been at peace, when he had turned to her with a laughing smile and had not been spurned._

"_Isn't the snow beautiful?" He had said, in his usual dreamy way, never truly bringing himself out to exert himself, but nevertheless allowing his half-lidded eyes to imbibe the universe with his unwavering gaze. And he thought that she had understood, that a tiny smile had lifted her own lips into an expression of amused tolerance—_

"_Ara, so it is."_

_The voice was so familiar, so like his own that for an instant he thought that he had answered himself; then turned, startled and with a curious guiltiness towards the newcomer. He wore the same thing as he always did; beige over lego-boots, quite unconscious of the moment that he had interrupted._

"_Very beautiful." Said Hao, and turned a vivid grin upon his sibling. "Your taste is impeccable, Yoh." Then his gaze drifted onwards and turned upon her—_

(In the real world, Yoh blinked, shuddered a little, biting down upon his lip with an unusual viciousness, eyes hooded, dark with an anger that had not been touched for sixteen years.)

_On and on he spiralled, into memories that went deeper and deeper into everything that made him himself, and still he was lost, dazed; not a little understanding of the situation at hand._

_And finally, he walked to an exit in his thoughts, crossed over with black bars that would not yield. He pressed his fingers to the center, said _Open_, and watched as they dissipated from sight._

_And walked onwards still, into the light._

* * *

"So," He was the first to speak, as his brother had been first to do everything. (Though she winced a little at the comparison, the angry cringe was subtle, and therefore of no import.) "What did my little brother say to you?"

Turning her face a little away, lips thinner than ever, she said nothing.

"I saw the bruise you dealt him." The long-haired shaman said conversationally. "Quite a lovely masterpiece; he's even bruising in your outfit's colors, did you know?" He gave a low, husky laugh of amusement, though his eyes were cool, evaluating her response. "Red and black." He said softly. "You trained him well."

"Don't be more of an idiot than you need to be, Hao." In some semblance of normality, she had recovered her usual crispness of speech – which would have been far more successful if her hand, gripping his, had not tightened subtly in restraint.

Mockingly, he yelped in an imitation of pain. "Is this," he whispered, falling into pace alongside her so that, when he tilted his head, his words fell directly into her ear, "what they mean by cruel love?"

"Not at all, since I don't love you." She retorted, supremely indifferent.

"Surely you must love _some_one."

She said, with only the minutest hesitance to color her words, "I love—Yoh."

"Ah—" His lips curled into a smile, edges trailing into wispy hints of smoke, "—that's easy enough, then." And when she turned her head to glance sharply at her companion, he was staring innocently at the stars.

"I would have thought that you would have noticed by now," He said, though he did not look to her as he spoke, "that Yoh and I are far more alike than can be credited to mere brotherhood."

"I have noticed," She replied scornfully, "that there are no two people more different upon this Earth than you and Yoh. One might as well compare the sun and the moon." And much to her surprise, the blonde felt the vibrations of concealed laughter travelling from his fingers to hers, through the clasped hands that she could not yet bear to let go of.

"Surprisingly," Hao murmured, raising the hand he held hers with suddenly so that she stepped towards him through instinct, "you may find that", his eyes loomed over hers, dark with a mystery that had been aged far beyond the years he had spent on Earth. "that comparison is more accurate than you…" He, too, stepped gently forwards so that they were pressed together. "think." He breathed the concluding word against the closed barrier of her lips, and laughed to see her expression.

"Doesn't it annoy you at all that my ototo's rejected you?" He inquired after the artless fashion of a young boy, though that guileless was not echoed in the age-old malice of his gaze.

Her eyes narrowed.

"Not quite as much as _you_ annoy me." She snapped, and broke away from his touch. (Curiously, her hand still tingled a little, from where it had pressed against his, though she did not wonder of it.) "Do you happen to think that I'm desperate? I told you that I'm not interested in becoming another girl in the ranks of your fanclub, and that I love Yoh. What more validation do you need to stay away from me?"

He did not appear to be giving much attention to her words.

"You're shaking." He noted. "Is that from fear of what I was going to do, or—" a side of his mouth curved up, "from fear that you would enjoy it."

"As though anyone would enjoy such ridiculousness with you." She spat.

He arched a brow. "You would be surprised."

"Aside from all the girls at school who have no idea what you're like, you have nobody who wants you."

"Except you."

"I," she said, with all-encompassing disdain, though she was all too aware – and he was, too; she could see from the slow malice of his smile that he saw as clearly as she – that a gradual heat had daubed her cheeks and she was lying through her teeth, "don't want you."

"But you could." He said, and she grew aware that he was smiling again beneath the faint echoes of starlight as the sun began to sink into the horizon. "You're afraid that you could. Aren't you." The words were a question, though they were not phrased as such, and he tilted his head to the side in childish curiosity to hear her response. When none came, the dark-haired boy said, smoothly, as though he had never stopped, "You could try it. I bind you to nothing; only to try it for a little while and see, perhaps, if it isn't worth it after all."

"If _what_ isn't worth it?"

"Come now," he looked a little amused, eyelids lowered into an expression of indolent arrogance. The wind rustled the dark strands away from his features, exposing the fullness of his expression. "don't play the fool. It doesn't suit you. If it isn't worth it being with me, of course."

"Idiot." She said coldly, and would have strode onwards, into the house, if he had not caught at her hand again.

"Just for an evening, then." He offered, and for a moment, looked plaintive. The darkness hid his own black hair all too well, so that for a moment she saw only the stark-white features illuminated in the moonlight, and thought, _Yoh_.

"Wh-what?" She murmured, a little bemusedly, caught off-guard.

"Just an evening." He coaxed, laughing a little at the ridiculousness of the situation. And by then, she had quite lost track of the unwavering malevolence of his gaze.

Before she could retract herself from the spell that his eyes and smile had wound about her, she had nodded her consent, and was caught up and lost in the vibrancy of his smile.

* * *

"The sun's down at the horizon." Tamao whispered at last, breaking from her trance in time to see the setting rays of crimson flicker hesitantly over the horizon.

"Already?" Manta was incensed. "He's going to make me late for cram school. Again! What is it with Yoh and cram school; why CAN'T THEY FIT INTO MY SCHEDULE EVENLY!" His shout echoed through the streets, resonating through the walls and rebounding against them… until they penetrated the orange headphones that had been tucked neatly over a certain shaman boy's ears.

Lifting them, he glanced inquiringly towards the corner where the pair was hidden, eyeing them through the wall as though the bricks were not there at all. "Hmm?" As they ducked still further behind the wall, however, the inquiring murmur became muffled laughter, eyes crinkling into arcs of a smile. "Yo!" He called, cupping his hands about his mouth in an oddly childish gesture. "Yo, don't hide from me, Manta; Tamao. I can see you!" Seeing them sheepishly peer back around the corner, he waved at them cheerily, grinning as though nothing were wrong at all.

Their steps towards him were hesitant, small, though he appeared perfectly content to await their arrival. And Manta's movements, certainly, were quickened by his impatience with the whole situation, his confusion a factor that sped his stride still more until even the taller Tamao could barely keep pace with him.

Yoh smiled at them, and the smallest of the trio thought that it was odd; that the brittle quality to his expression appeared now to be wholly gone.

"I'm sorry, friends," He said mildly. "Sorry to have kept you waiting. But I've been busy..."

"Are you all right now?" Tamao inquired, gently, and not a little fearfully.

He did not throw his head back to laugh in false mirth, but merely allowed his smile to broaden; poised and assured in his own way.

"Couldn't be better." He confirmed with equal tenderness, and grinned.

"Now, I know what I'm doing."

"And your problems?" Inquired Manta, a little pointedly, though there was nothing but concern in his words. "Are they gone?"

Now Yoh did throw his head back, though he did not laugh. Instead, he appeared to be gazing widely up at the pinpoint stars that had filtered out into the waning twilight sky.

"If they aren't now, I'm sure they will be soon." He said, relaxedly, and grinned still more broadly at Manta's expression as he drew his eyes reluctantly to the earth again. "Don't worry so, Manta." He said.

"After all, everything will work out."

* * *

**Author's Note:** This was my way of 'bringing Yoh back to canon', for those who thought that he was OOC. –prods him lovingly- He'll still angst once in a while, because I love him and therefore want to make him suffer, but he's Yoh now. Well, more so than he was before.

Review replies! (Before anybody can ask what the shards I'm babbling about. -.-;; )

**Koneko-Koneko:** I agree, it can be cute, but in this case, it's going to be mostly sad if it works out the way I have it planned… -has already written part of the ending and is looking rather depressed at the moment- And I would never abandon this fic; the most I would do is stick it briefly up on hiatus. And certainly I'll keep consistent until May 12, where I have a rather special filler chapter planned… -evil smile-

**KristiexxNguyen:** Please note that they named their kid **Ha**na. Do I see a Yoh in there? Heh. –is snerking just for the fun of it- ;D And you should be happy, right? Your pairing won, after all.

**Inulover4eva: **You don't know that they're the true feelings… not to mention the fact that true feelings can change. And Anna's not THAT poor; she's going to get in a lot of good slaps. I'd say more that you should pity the people AROUND her. xD And at LEAST 20 more chapters; I've planned up to that point, but it doesn't look like it'll get finished just there. The tournament, for heavens' sakes, only starts around chapter 18 or so.

**asn water:** I wanted to bring into play a little character development for Tamao. For goodness' sakes, as a main character she was so ignored in my fic. –guilt- So yeah; that was my whole guilt-filler-chapter moment. Hopefully we'll be seeing a lot more of her in the future. :)

**Snow-girl:** I don't like to define my characters by something as simple as good and evil. They all mean well (except for Ren, but he's an exception that proves the rule); they just occasionally have warped ways of getting things done.

**Trisyl:** Anything that I haven't already said to you before or over IM can be summarized in one word: Nyeah.

**Soul:** Ehe… Two weeks since my last update. –cough-

**Cindy Asakura:** Er. D'you actually read my author notes? Because the voting's over. –poke-

**anime-obsession260:** Thank you. :)

**dillpops:** More mixing up to come in the future. And then mixing right. And mixing wrong again. Some lovely confusion. And thanks. :)

**Kawaii Koneko92:** Sorry, no; voting's over anyway. And you watch. Yoh, well… -hugs him protectively and shuts mouth- You'll see.

**Kaorien Otome:** Hurray for full access:3 Congrats!

**Rayless-Demon:** …I want to see that… Gah. –wistful-

**bow-down-to-keiko:** Yohmao, Yao.. –imagines this being pronounced "Yow!" and snickers helplessly- You can't really blame me for laughing, can you? ;) And… I don't know, I could. Currently, though, I have the most clichéd predicament in fanfic history to happen to Anna. All for good reasons, of course. Er. Mwahaha?

He gets, not wiser, but happier. Which I think is important.

**Anonymous:** Thanks:D

**TenkunoMeiou:** I will; thank you for the encouragement.

**Starwing:** Heh.. yeah, I did. W00t for alternate pairings, therefore. :P

**Bibliomaniac:** I say 'endings' because that makes more sense to everyone. If it makes any more sense, I'd say 'arcs' – they'll split off at some point and I'll post updates to each at a time. I don't know. It depends a lot on what path it goes down.

And I know. That's why I told an earlier reviewer that any Tamao/Hao is going to be pretty sad. Hao will tolerate the attachment, but I'm not sure he'll acknowledge its importance until she dies. I'll do my best to work it out better, but so far that's the way it looks.

As for confused!Yoh, think of it this way: Anna is one of the greatest pillars of his life. In staggering, he's a little shaky at the moment, and it's only in this chapter that he's _really_ beginning to recover his footing. And that's true; if you look back, (hopefully) you'll see that he's never actually _said_, "I love Tamao." Or "I love Anna" anywhere. If you do, tell me. It's not supposed to be there and I inserted it on the spur of the moment. Gah. –grumbles- So need beta readers.

Maybe you think so. You've yet to see his reasons. And _those_ I shall keep my mouth shut on. For once.

**Hana:** Hurray:) Hope you enjoyed it.

**cherri-chan:** I see… I generally try to write deep-seated angst because I find it more fun than fluff. And it builds character! (-coughandireallyenjoytorturingthemcough-)

**Ketone: **Hold on to your seat; this could take a while. ;)

**SK-INU-FY fans:** -meekly- Yes'm. Updated.

**Cam:** -laughs- Hopefully it will never be my fault – or my fanfic's – if your homework doesn't get done. :) Good luck with it.


	10. Thoughts and Blood

**You're Mine**

**Summary: **AU _"Just remember that you're mine." _It begins with those words, but rapidly becomes something deeper and far more complicated than a mere promise to get back the boy of her dreams...YohxAnnaxHaoxTamao.

**Disclaimer: **I own all the hearts of the Shaman King characters. No, seriously; they're floating around in little jars in my room. –smile-

**Author's Note: _I've updated at last!_ **Gah… I've been grounded still more now. ;.; Which means that updates will be coming still more slowly than ever. My fervent apologies; I'll try and write them out by hand. Same goes for all the Every Pairing ficlets and the drabbles that I've been working on; please be patient with me and wait.

This chapter is a bit of a filler chapter. After having re-read all of my SK books, I've also tried to bring Yoh forcibly back to character, and he wanted a chapter of his own. (Not typical of Yoh, I know, but he's so cute that I couldn't resist.) Tell me what you think.

It's also a bit shorter than usual; I'll try to make the next one longer.

* * *

Chapter Ten: Thoughts and Blood

Three days could make so much of a difference.

In three days, she had leapt from devotion to a single boy to dating another. (She did not precisely recall how the promise had come about now, only that she grasped it as firmly now as she had ever clutched any of her possessions, and that she would rather be killed than to admit defeat and allow it to simply pass.)

Admittedly, they were twins, and Yoh had been an unfaithful brat, but nevertheless…

Hesitation clouded her thoughts, lacing them – no, _suffusing_ them – until she thought that she might go mad from uncertainty, from no longer having that pillar of absolution around which she had twined her life.

If she had been anyone else, that conclusion would have been inevitable; Anna felt things with an intensity that had come of being able to divine others' thoughts at an early age, and that intensity was enough to send nearly anyone gibbering to the hospital for the mad. But she was Anna, and so was placidly stolid, unwavering; as though she did not feel the blows at all. Certainly Yoh thought so – and now more than ever, she was determined to keep that illusion in place between them.

If the blonde had studied her emotions more closely, pinning them to a black canvas like fragile butterfly wings for display, she might have caught the faintest hint of a desire to wreak vengeance upon him. _Let him suffer what I have suffered. An eye for an eye._

What fortune it was, then, that she did not choose to study it, selecting for her studies instead the scant few garments that composed her wardrobe.

Women on her soap operas had always spent hours preparing for their rendezvous with the ones they loved. But she did not love Hao, and in any case, she had already begun to tire of the preparations five minutes into the process. It was fuss, and unnecessary at that – and Anna, regardless of whatever else she had become now, had never much cared for fuss. For her first… 'date' (she thought the word with a certain amount of distaste, eyes narrowing as she cast a cursory glance towards her reflection), she would doubtless have to make some sort of effort, if only to give Yoh the evidence that she cared somewhat for this venture.

_Let's see._ Her fingers skimmed lightly over the garments in the wardrobe as her eyes flickered through them and back again – there were hardly that many to select from in the first place. _I have a choice between… the black dress, the other black dress, and the black dress that I had to mend because Yoh stepped on it._ As the last one registered within her thoughts, she paused for a moment, lips thin with malice, before she discarded its consideration from her thoughts. _I shall have him pay for it when I get back, and in the meantime, I'll wear the black one. He had better hope that he has the money to pay for it—_

A knock reverberated through her door, sounding through the opaque paper screen with a rasp that echoed through her room.

She whirled upon it narrowly, features already contorted into an expression of decided unwelcome before she composed herself. There was only one resident within the house that would request permission before entering her room – Hao would simply stride in with the assurance that whatever he saw belonged to him in any case. And Anna had yet to see a guest of sufficient courage to brave her domain. It was apparent by their conspicuous absence that the brunet's companions had not yet recovered sufficiently to confront her again. The fact was unsurprising; she had, after all, duly bid each to wash the floors of the house, although bid was too mild a word for the manner with which she had requested their obedience.

"Come in." She said, and her lips were drawn tautly, like the frame of a bow, the string white against her features.

He poked his head in first, and she was much struck by some integral change in him. These past days, he had glowed still with the fact of Tamao's presence, so vibrant and alive that she had had to resist the heavy urge to strike him in order to remove some of that brightness. (And she _had_ resisted it as much as she could; he was no longer hers to strike, hers to touch. Even that familiar habit had been denied her now.) Nevertheless, there had been a faint wilt about his edges, as though he were a bloom in the midst of dying. But now, it seemed, the sun had dawned upon him again, and he was grinning again with an endearing boyishness that made her breath catch at her throat with the familiarity of his expression – an expression that put them dangerously close to memories of other days when he had belonged to her…

"Yo." Yoh said, and grinned the memorable amalgamation of sheepish fear and peace that had always been his trademark. His smile faded somewhat, however, as he noticed the sprawling openness of her closet door and the emotion that imbued her surroundings – that charged it still, though his presence had lessened their aura somewhat. "Did I interrupt something?" He inquired in apparent concern.

"Preparations." She said carelessly, and turned away from him with that self-same cavalier manner that instigated a deeper frown upon his brow, momentarily taken aback by the casualness of her words.

"Preparations?" He echoed, and stepped into her room. As though that footstep had been a trigger, her head whipped back to stare at her former fiancé significantly. It took him a few moments to recall why the itako had begun to grip her beads in such a menacing fashion, but he recalled it eventually, and rapidly stepped outside her boundaries again with an awkwardly charming smile.

"Hao," – there was a certain difficulty, now that he was not present to exert his magnetism and remind her precisely why she had agreed to this ridiculous charade in the first place – "is taking me out this weekend." Now her eyelids lowered so that only slits of ebony showed, though they glared with the vividity of her open gaze. "Just as you and Tamao do." The blonde added in a cold monotone. The parallel was unmistakable, and Yoh did not miss it. (She would have, though the itako would have never admitted it, been disappointed if he had not caught it; she had not thought him a fool, only slightly and faintly misled.)

"You and Hao?" It seemed as though his pronunciation did not die away from the room immediately, but echoed throughout the space with a curious immortality that faded with incredible reluctance. She would not have said that he was shocked, precisely, but there was a certain amount of incomprehension in his gaze as he stared at her, eyes black pinpoints in ivory seas. "Are you two—" He began, and there was a certain amount of gentleness in his tone now.

"It would not matter if we were, would it?" Though she spoke one set of words, another phrase lurked beneath her flawless façade, sufficiently bolded so that he could see it through her half-translucent mask. _You shouldn't care in any case, you have Tamao, you can't have the both of us, did you think that you could keep both of us and never be troubled again? _But what she spoke aloud was phrased with a cool neutrality, though there was annoyance, too, in the way that she spoke; part of her intent had been to rouse in him some sort of feeling that she could read. Unfortunately, his mind was peculiarly murky, with no clear, distinct thoughts to rise above the stagnant swirl of contemplations that she had never troubled herself to read in anyone.

Anna wondered a little idly if he knew what he was thinking. Then, with a sudden sharpness, she wondered if he knew what he was thinking himself.

"Not if you were happy." He said, and was serious again, eyes dark but clear to the very bottom, like black riverwater. (She remembered a time when she had been very young – and cynical, but then she had always been so – when she had doubted the hearts of the world. And she had looked into that self-same clarion gaze and had fallen. She did not know until half a decade later when she had fallen into.) Owlishly solemn, he blinked at her again, unswervingly, but with a care that made her feel – irritably – as though he were attempting to handle her so that she would not break. As though she had grown fragile.

She did not realize that she had glanced down and away until she found that he was standing beside her, attempting to hold her gaze with his own by a curious twist of his body that—

"You look like a fool, standing that way." The itako said frigidly, but did not look away from him again.

A slow grin lifted his lips in the expression of a blossoming smile. He said, calmly, "But fools are happy, aren't they? And aren't I allowed now, to be a fool if I like?" The question was casual, but there was defiance in his words too. She would not have seen it if she had not been herself, and she knew that he himself knew the same thing. (_That_ irritated her too, that even as she had learned him and everything that made him, he had learned her, too, in the years that they had been together.)

"You were _always_ a fool." The blonde said, and stared at him as though she dared him to object to her statement. He merely laughed, however, straightening up and folding his hands with a unique twist that was all his own.

"I suppose I was always happy, then." He said, but forged on before she could think of some cutting retort that would turn him away from her door. "I wondered though, sometimes, if you were happy. You never seemed like it. You," and his eyes bored into hers with a sudden un-Yoh-like sharpness. "always seemed as though you hated me."

"Ah." mused Anna. "A blind fool who is happy nevertheless. What a rarity." At his blank look, she recalled that it was not Hao with whom she was bandying words, but Yoh, who had always preferred straightforwardness to the mysticism of metaphors. It was beginning to grow more difficult to distinguish them now, not because of the similarities in their appearance, but in the way that each had wormed a path into her private altar, and stood there now; irreplaceable if they should be lost. "I never hated you, Yoh. Must I tell you everything so simply?"

"Yes." He said, impertinently, and grinned. To both their surprises, she did not slap him, but kept still, regarding him for a moment as though she intended to memorize everything about this moment, about his form, and drink it down.

"Must I tell you everything twice?" Anna said, and her eyes had grown distant, hazy with a detachment that he recognized only too easily as her usual manner.

"It depends." He said. "Will you slap me if I ask twice?"

Her dark eyes glittered. "It depends." She mocked his phrasing, but with a half-seriousness that bade her continue even so. "Is your question a good one?"

"It is—important." He confirmed, solemn again, though airily so. "Do you truly intend to go out with my brother this weekend?"

The temperature that had begun to ease its way into spring between them now froze again with the brittle chill of winter. Her gaze was arctic as she turned it upon him, full of ice and the deadly things that might be uncovered in the whiter season. As though she had forgotten his presence, Anna toyed with the hem of her sleeve for a moment before she glanced towards him again. And when she did, her gaze was flecked with ice.

"Do you have any problems with it?" She inquired silkily – though her eyes were set like encrusted black diamonds.

Fear of her overcame any thoughts he might have had towards her protection, and he shook his head slowly, barely. "N- no." He managed to say.

"Good." She affirmed coldly, though there was nothing of that acknowledgement in the chill of her voice. "Now get out."

As he moved past the threshold, the sound of her voice arrested him briefly again. "Oh, and Yoh-kun?"

"H-hai?" Half-stammeringly, he glanced back, imbued with curiosity and something rather more than the idle thoughts of a healthy mind.

Without glancing up from her apparently fascinated study of her garment, the itako said, "Don't even think about following us." Now she did raise her head, and he thought that he could recognize where her gaze had come from. He had seen cobras on the television, once, that had resembled her, with their hypnotic gazes and the subtle threats that she now flared to expose. "It's none of your business anymore."

Silently, the boy lamented his former fiancée's ability to mind-read, and left before she could think of more restrictions to impose upon him.

* * *

He could hear murmurings within, the casual yelpings of little children, little pups who didn't know when they had it good. They annoyed him, these children, but it was not with them that he held his affairs, but with another… Was this the wrong house after all? Had his spirit been mistaken? (And they had been so careful to avoid the sight of these ghost-seeing children too; was that effort, too, to be wasted?)

He squinted through the brick. _Ah, spirit, just a little farther, I need to find him to speak to him…_

"What are you doing here?" Feathered blue hair shone momentarily beneath the moonlight before dissipating into the shadows in order to reappear behind the newcomer. "You should know that Hao-sama does not appreciate disturbances in his own home." Mockery danced within her gaze, and said all that might be necessary regarding her opinions of the other two denizens within the house; one with tremendous potential that he could not be bothered to unlock, the other with powers that she seemed to keep eternally veiled.

"I needed to see him." The man said gruffly. "Stand aside, little woman-slave. My business is not with you, but with your probable master."

Icy disdain flared within her gaze as she stared at him noncommittally. "Did you," she said, "filth of the world, just call me a _slave_?"

"It's what you are, isn't it?" He shrugged carelessly, eyes careful and blank as he folded his hands together. "I'm after your master, Hao. Stand aside, girl. Or must I tell you in more forceful terms?"

"He bores Mari." A voice of a higher pitch than the first woman's low, sensual voice drifted out from the gloom. "He is boring. Mari thinks that he is trying to join Hao-sama like all the others." She paused deliberately a moment, lucidly dulled eyes regarding him with something he caught as contempt. "Mari does not think that he will survive."

"Ha!" Now a third girl had appeared. Leaning lightly upon the support of what appeared to be a broomstick, she, too, peered interestedly at the newcomer. "So he is." She said, but a note of disapproving amusement had touched her voice. "If Hao-sama approves him, I shall have to be very sorry for him; if we do not help him, he will be buried immediately when the Tournament comes."

When first they had begun to mock him, he had said nothing, but at this – the mention of the sacred Tournament upon a filthy little brat's lips – his fists clenched.

"Little ignorants," he spat. "Do you think that I know nothing! You have no strength whatsoever, if you cannot see mine—"

"Ah, but then, if they are weak for not being able to see it, I must be the same." A cool voice interjected itself neatly into the conversation, slipping delicately into the smooth flow of the exchange as though he were merely resuming his place. And he had – the shaman realized – he had. Even without his presence, the trio that had confronted him had positioned themselves with a slight flaw in their position; a flaw where he now fitted in order to complete them.

"Boy," he said, and drew himself to his full height with arrogant poise. Addressing the boy in the beige cloak and the curious star-patterned belt, he said, coldly, "I seek a conference with your master, not some whelp not half crawled out of his mother's womb."

As the boy leaned forwards in the darkness, however, he bit his lip, suppressing the gasp that rose through his lungs. There was an ancient malice within those newly-minted obsidian eyes; a malevolence that surely could not have been accumulated within a single lifetime alone.

"Be careful what words you address to the master." Said Hao, and only after even the whispering echo of his voice had faded did the man realize that this child, this boy, was mocking him and everything that he stood for. Nevertheless, forcing his spine to bend, he bowed in a gesture of submission and acquiescence.

"I have come to join you, Hao-sama." He said. "News of your might has spread all over the world, and the fools retreat into their homes in the hopes that they will be able to ward you away. I understand strength, however, and that you are the strongest. Therefore I pledge my services to—"

"Huh!" A sharp circular object spiralled through the darkness, slicing through the shadows and, before he could move, his shoulder.

He stared in the horror at the gash upon his arm, which was beginning to react, at last, to the injury and gradually fill with blood. "M-master," he began, glaring daggers at the rotund Oriental man who had newly emerged from the darkness.

"You haven't earned the right to call Hao-sama your master." A bearded, solemn man who would have taken after the look of preachers, were it not for the fact that his suit and hat were a solemn black, and that upon his prominent chin was tattooed an _inverted_ cross – a symbol of heresy wherever it was marked. Despite his simple, trimmed appearance, however, there was a feral grin upon his features that the shaman had learned to identify as the worst kind of madness in streetfolk. "So don't try it."

"And how do we even know that we can trust you?" Now an Arabian-styled man peered at him from the side, arms crossed flatly over his flowing white robes; a stark contrast over how fluidly his garments move. "People have tried to kill Hao-sama before." He paused, meaningfully. "They failed – and paid for that failure with their lives."

"I- I would never dream of harming Master!" He lied, but inevitably, his thoughts spun back to the people that he had left behind him in order to accomplish this mission. They had chosen him because of the nickname that he had earned among them. _The Smiler._

_He smiles even when there is nothing to smile about._

_He smiles because he is in love, and love makes everything beautiful._

_He smiles because he trusts everything, and so nobody could resist trusting in him. Not even the devil himself._

He had not smiled when Hao's intentions to participate again in the Tournament had been announced, but had put on his garments, slowly, regally, with the promise that he would be back soon, before the kiss upon his wife's cheek faded from lack of warmth. He would be back, after killing the devil and putting an end to his cursed third life on Earth.

_Third is last_, he had said, and his wife had laughed…

He grew aware that Hao was smiling at him. "A very interesting story." Said the shaman conversationally, and absentmindedly allowed a flicker of flame to spark upon his fingers. "I particularly enjoyed the bit about your wife; it is sweet to see that there can be such dedication to each other in a world filled with mortal taint and such tribulations." And his smile broadened, so that he looked as any innocent boy would have in the circumstances, grin full-fledged with the glint of teeth caught between, charming and curiously warming after a fashion...

He blinked, uncertain, for a moment, of what he had heard from the boy's lips. He had not spoken aloud, and yet—

"And yet I can hear you." The faint grin upon Hao's lips broadened, and a lazy, sensual twist touched them gently. "Is that what you were going to say? You seem quite badly informed about the enemy that you were attempting to defeat. Would you like me to solve the puzzle for you?" Despite that taunting query, he remained still, staring in a peculiar fashion at the man before releasing an expansive sigh. "I suppose I shall have to tell you." He said, a sardonic melancholy imbuing his tone. "I can, as humans crassly call the things that I do, read thoughts." And he folded his hands neatly against his lap as he watched the other shaman's face dim in pallid weakness.

"I am also, of course," he admitted, with a mocking sensitivity, "rather sad that the opponents that the fates have deemed to send me are quite so weak in both comprehension and furyoku, but ah well." He examined his fingers leisurely, spreading the slender digits out in the moonlight so that they gleamed like slashes of ink in a Chinese character. "I suppose every road must have a few – what are those curious human inventions? _Speed bumps_. Killing you wouldn't be any fun for me, however," he went on, to the older man's considerable surprise. And if he had not been struck dumb in staring at the fire shaman, he would have never caught the careless flicker of fingers that the boy made that seemed to trigger his companions' assault…

All other observations that he might have made regarding the situation were utterly lost as six figures launched their attack upon him and he found himself assaulted on all sides, mercilessly—

"They've decided to be unmerciful tonight, I see." The young Asakura's voice rang out through the garden, unafraid of being heard. "They're not going to give you a speedy death." He tipped his head up so that the moonlight silvered his features, outlining each line upon his features with such definition that suddenly he looked his age – the age that he had long ago attained beneath his skin.

And he smiled, so hard that his eyes fanned shut. "I am sorry for you." He mused, though he did not turn to look at the shaman again. Neither did he speak again – or perhaps the violence was simply so pervasive that he could not hear the boy's words any longer.

His wife's features swam before his eyes, and silently, even as he slashed out desperately in a reckless attempt to survive, he mouthed her name into the air…

Moments later, his blank-eyed corpse fell to the ground with a dead thud, with only the slightest of dark tricklings from his body to indicate that this was not merely an unconscious person, or a man that had fallen asleep.

Hao inspected the curious device strapped to his arm, and made a little moue of distaste as the display screen flared to life. "Ah, so he wasn't all that strong in any case. But there is still something so terribly wasteful about the idea that shamans will throw themselves at me in this way."

"Opacho no liked him." Said a tiny, piping voice beside him. Gently, the dark-haired boy smiled at his diminutive companion.

"No," he said, with the usual solemn sweetness that imbued his manner. "I didn't like him either. Are you glad that he is dead, Opacho?"

"This way too slow." The petite child complained with her clumsy language. "Needs faster. You burn next time?"

"Oh," Indulgently, he snapped his fingers, as though he had nearly forgotten his duties. Immediately, the body flared to life, unholy hues glowing within the flames. "There." The long-haired adolescent said with satisfaction, examining his handiwork with a languorous grace. "He's burning now." And he laughed to see the little girl smile as she gazed hypnotically into the flames…

"Hao-sama," Having dissipated to reappear behind him again, Kanna inclined her slender body in an obeisance, though her eyes burned with the edge of insanity – tribute to the sacred belief that they all shared in Hao. "Why did you waste your energy in burning him? We could have easily disposed of the body ourselves—"

"You do too much for me." Hao said with a wry smile, though a sinister light glittered within his gaze. "Besides, I rather like to do some things myself. And I could not have touched his body myself. After all—" his lip curled, though with amusement or disdain, it could not be ascertained; both emotions seemed to meld and become nothing beneath the illusions of moonlight.

"I have a date with the dear Anna-chan soon. And I wouldn't want to bloody my hands in case she sensed it…"

* * *

**Author's Note**: Again, my apologies for taking so long. But on the other hand (for those who care. Which probably isn't many, as it has nothing to do with SK fanfiction) I now have sixty-four pages of Times New Roman, size twelve original fiction. By moi. –pleased-

Review Replies:

**asn water:** Your very own personal drabble!

Manta Wants to Know

"So…" The diminutive boy glanced towards his companion, who was now yawning as they strode home. Tamao, her worries soothed, had dashed away to her own dwelling before they could realize that it was taking her longer to get home than usual. "What were you thinking about?"

"Oh, serious things." Said Yoh, and grinned. "Nothing very important, really."

A vein in Manta's forehead twitched. "You were thinking," he pointed out, "for several hours. It _has_ to be important. And even if you don't think it so, tell me anyway."

Surprised by the shorter boy's fervor, Yoh peered momentarily at him, eyes wide with bemusement. "Oh, very well." He said.

"I realized that…"

"Yes?"

His grin broadened as his stomach released a tell-tale gurgle. "I want to eat oranges!" He finished with a wide smile.

Manta looked pained.

Poor Manta. –pets him- He really doesn't deserve all that I do to him.

**bOw-doWn-tO-KeiKO:** I thought so too. I put it down to the extra sugar he had to lunch and exactly how worried he's been about Yoh. Since you're most likely to know, is Yoh canon in this chapter, do you think?

**Digi RD:** Of course I will. ;P After all that fuss about voting and such, I'm going to keep it Yoh/Anna with separate arcs for HaoxAnna. It would be too much of a headache to change it again now.

**Yoh/Anna Fan:** -blinks- Uhm… did you read my author notes at all? o.O

**Inulover4eva:** Well, the RenxAnna was up a while ago, as you probably noticed. :) Everything else is going to take a while, though, as I'm grounded.

**Kawaii Koneko92:** You favour the HaoxAnna, right? Next chapter should be worth waiting for, then. ;)

**Dillpops:** I've always thought of Hao as the kind of person who would go to extremes normal people wouldn't go to in order to achieve his goals. Did he know he looked like Yoh? Probably not. Would he have minded if he'd known? Only a little bit, and that, insultedly, that Anna didn't want him for himself. And I wrote a drabble for Asn Water (Up There) that is partially Manta-centric. Manta won't be seen for a few chapters, as the next few are going to revolve around the main characters' houses, and what happens within, but I promise you that he'll pop up again.

**KristiexxNguyen:** I always thought that Japanese was like Chinese, and therefore Yoh and Na were two separate characters and could be put together if necessary. Unfortunately, I don't know all that much about Japanese. And how on earth was Anna persuaded to name her child 'Flower'? –laughs-

**Ketone:** Yes, the Tournament is the Shaman Fight. Unfortunately, I like the word 'Tournament' better. –sweatdrops-

**Trisyl:** If I write a sequel to this, Manta will have a growth spurt. ;P At the moment, however, the only way I see for him to get taller is to stretch him on the ra ck. Which would not be fun, so please don't make me. As for fanart, I'm working on a chibi set. Hao is the only one who looks right so far.

I know Tamao's a little out of character – but she's got depth now. She's not just a 2-D Yoh-fan. She has her own life, her angers, her petty jealousies and her sweet lightness. And that's what I wanted to do to her.

Heh; wait and find out like everyone else. The drabble was partially right. And partially… not.

**Anonymous**: Sorry for the wait! –sweatdrops-

**Koneko-Koneko:** Sad is good. –pleased- I like sad things, although happy moments are good too.

**TenkunoMeiou:** Heh… It's people like you who commend me on my updates that make me feel guilty that I'm not updating faster… Sorry.

**anime-obsession260:** Yes, but only for the major pairings. For instance, if you fancy a HaoxJun, you'll have to go request it at Every Pairing, not here. Here, only HaoxAnna, YohxAnna and their respective pairings get arcs.

**Crystal-Faerie:** Moreover, YohxAnna is canon. –grins-

**Black Hikari: **Er… -shuffles feet- This isn't 'soon', but it's 'now'.

**cherri-chan:** The torture is for their own good; for character development and to achieve an ending. (And I likes character development; for instance, I shall be able to flesh out Tamao- hurrah!) And… really? –laughs- Wow… And I thought Chinese was the only language to be so utterly silly and confusing!

**Bibliomaniac:** I'll write a MantaxTamao for Every Pairings, but not for here. Here, Tamao needs to learn strength, and therefore should (logically, in my mind, although perhaps not in yours) be paired with an Asakura. And besides, I like challenging pairings; they give me something to strive for. A good writer can write just about anything. (And since I'm working on becoming just that, I need to try everything.)

Oh, she's Anna. She won't get carried away… much. I'm not sure what qualifies, however; she's cynical, rapier-tongued when she wants to be, kind when she wants to be (although subtly, so that it does not contrast with her harridan-image), focused on making Yoh Shaman King, and uninterested in the trappings of love. I plan to keep her so, but everything else is probably negotiable. Unless I missed something.

Hao has a natural charm to him; charisma, I think they call it. And even though she knows it's there, she can't help being affected by it at some level deeper than her consciousness, and treats him accordingly.

She can't exactly get it from Yoh at the moment, now can she, considering the circumstances? And I don't think that she wants it, in any case. (Not at the moment, anyway.)

She's not angsting now, at least; she's out for _blood_. This subtly!angry Anna is one of my favourite phases to play. :)


	11. Toleration and Contemplation

**Author's Note: **Wow… it's been a while since I updated. Well, there's news and there's news (namely, that I'm about a hundred thousand words into my novel. Yes, that's probably why I've been neglecting this… -shuffles feet-), but hopefully I'm back to this for a greater amount of time now. Please accept this filler chapter (and a birthday-chapter-fic-thing, involving Ren singing karaoke (yes really) on our favorite pair of twins' birthday. :D) as my apologies.

**Disclaimer:** I own Shaman King! No, really? ;P

* * *

Chapter Eleven: Toleration and Contemplation

She had barely descended the edge of the stairs before he was there, eyes languidly expectant as they touched the hem of her typical black dress and rose, slowly, to her features. A faint blush touched her cheeks, but ran before it could be forcibly chased off by her iron control.

"You did not dress up for the event." He said, and made a sad moue at which she raised an eyebrow. (He himself was dressed as he always had been, the familiar amalgamation of conceit and danger, though she would have never considered voicing this to him. He would have understood – which would have been worse than the dull, faint uncomprehending look that Yoh would have given her.)

"Disappointed?" The itako said, her voice flat with contempt.

His eyes curved shut relaxedly, and the amusement within his voice was strong as he replied, "Only that you fulfilled my expectations."

She fell silent. Anna had never had any use for playful banter, and this languorous toying of words was little more than that – useless, though it sparkled like something beautiful. Seeing this, Hao opened his eyes again, a small smile touching the line of his mouth as he brushed a hand across her face, her cheek, the line of her jaw that strengthened as she watched him a few lingering moments, her gaze devoid of emotion, before slapping his hand away.

He retreated. "Aren't I allowed to touch you?" The dark-haired shaman said dryly, his voice innocent, mouth and eyes smiling. He always had lied beautifully, and the seraphic exquisiteness of his features gave a brief pang to which she paid no attention. "You did promise to be my… date, after all."

"Your date, not your toy." The light-haired itako said matter-of-factly. Beneath the half-light and the fading illumination of the sun beyond the door, her eyes were blacker than ever, but with the softness of shadows that day did not grant her. In twilight, dressed in black, sixteen-year-old Anna looked beautiful. "Play with the lives of others, the emotions of others who can fight back but will go on tolerating you, but know that I don't."

"Don't what?"

Something like contempt curled her lip as she looked to him. "Tolerate you."

"Of course you do." Said Hao. "If you do, do you think that I'd still be alive?"

Her eyes narrowed effectively, then widened again with the struggling reluctance of anger. "You would." She said austerely, and fought off a thousand less-than-complimentary additions that rushed to fill the blank that followed her words. "You seem to have an amazing propensity for surviving." At his mildly curious look, she added, "The spirits have been speaking of you."

"When I'm not around, I notice."

"When you _are_ around," the itako said, her movements overt and careful as she leaned against the banister, still upon the final step so that her head was slightly higher than his, "they vanish off to nowhere." _Assumably because they don't want to be around you._

He laughed, delighted with the sudden stunning beauty that shocked her to the core all over again – not something as paltry as emotion, but palpable, like electricity coursing from his skin to hers, as if she were merely the conduit through which the river of strength flowed…

Her teeth gritted subtly. _I am no mere conduit. I will be Shaman Que—_

For what was possibly the first time in her life, the thought faltered to a close unfinished as even her mind lapsed into silence.

_He belongs to me._

_He belongs to her._

_He belongs to me._

_He belongs to her._

_He belongs to me._

_He belongs to… her…_

She did not despair – that was over with, dispensed cleanly, like a smooth cut made from ear to ear with a polished knife. But nevertheless, something like sadness – a flitting butterfly – danced across her mind before being crushed by a careless hand. Anna had no use for sorrow, for the moping of depression.

"Well then." He seemed to sense her thoughts, for he offered her a hand in moments, his eyes ingenuously inscrutable. "I had promised to meet you at six – it's precisely that now. Will you come with me?"

"No." Anna said, with the low amusement of sarcasm, forcing away the thoughts within her mind. "I would much rather go back to my room. There is work to be done aside from things relating to you, as you might consider remembering, and some of that work belongs to me."

A slow, stunning smile unfolded across his lips silkenly as he watched the shadow of the stairs from which she had descended, eyes catching the glint of something that Anna did not. Then, silently, he drew an arm about her, curling it inward with the lightness of possessiveness.

Her eyes widened faintly. But though she stiffened against his touch – a silent battle of control within her mind as she fought against the instinct to turn and strike him so hard that he would see stars for years – she did not break from it as they moved awkwardly together, towards the door. Only her eyes, raised to his, showed that light, cavalier question within her gaze, and even it was obscured.

He did not interfere. She had asked – no, _told_, and an order from the itako was hardly a thing to be taken lightly – him not to. Nevertheless, Asakura Yoh watched from the concealing darkness beneath the stairs and wondered if he should have refused to give her that promise after all.

She did not look unhappy – he would have worried if she had, and lingered in Hao's arms – but neither was there happiness in her eyes as she turned to look at his brother, and he had half-expected it. Anna did not do things to be perverse… did she?

The click of the closed door rang back into his ears like an earthquake, but he remained immovably beneath the stairs for a few moments longer, wondering…

-

Three Signs of a Classic Date:

**Number One: Going to a Movie.**

"Why a movie?" Anna inquired with her dry logic. She stood in the midst of the seats, refusing to sit. The ride upon the Spirit of Fire had been quick, and peculiarly disturbing. The itako was not an easily shaken person, but then, the fact that the creature she had employed as a ride consumed souls as its sustenance was enough to throw anyone off, though she had been careful not to show it.

"You watch your silly soap operas." Hao said with a shrug and a charming smile, as though this would explain everything. A hand lay innocently upon the seat beside him, a subtle invitation. She glared at it darkly as though it were a piranha – a _live_ piranha. "I had thought that you would appreciate something played upon a larger screen."

Nevertheless, the blonde remained standing. It was not a matter of tiredness or theatre courtesy, but of pride and withstanding the charms of his smile. "It is a waste of money." She said evenly as the rest of the evening's customers began to filter into the dark room.

"It is a waste of _my_ money." Said the dark-haired shaman, tilting his head back in a brilliant façade of amusement as he threw his arms carelessly across the seats, though a hand dangled still down to the seat beside him. The rest of the audience had been careful to avoid the seats nearest them, though Anna would not have thought that they had so much sense. "Even if I spent it on women or wine or whatever it is that humans ruin themselves with, it would be none of your business." He had glanced back, and his dark eyes were full of some seriousness that she could not – did not – comprehend, but held her enthralled. "Would it, Anna?"

She shook the charm from her eyes, the enchantment from his smile gone like something she knew to be gilded. "Is it your money that you're spending?" She said instead.

He laughed, the sound appealingly clear. She wondered, perhaps, if Hitler had sounded like this as a child, if Hitler had ever looked so beautiful with his perfected angularity, his careful, sculpted features, and the balance between sensuality and grace that was evident in every motion. But then, Hitler had not already been so contracted, so formed as a child, and he was.

"Would it matter whose money I was spending so long as I was spending it on you?"

"Certainly it would matter to the person that you had taken it from." Reluctantly, as the commercials upon the screen began to come to a close, she sat, although little enough upon her seat so that no part of his body touched hers.

"Oh." Said Hao, and his eyes glinted with mischief and something darker as he leaned forward. (The movie lights began to dim, but it did not detract from the shadows of his eyes, brilliant and faceted like jewels.) "I don't think that he'll mind very much, actually. Not at all."

The implication – that he was not in a position to mind so much about his money as about his own health – hung in the air, weighted like a corpse.

He threw his arm about her with all the artlessness of a boy sometime during the course of the movie, and she was so careful to be enrapt by the film that she did not catch it, leaning back subtly against his support.

But the fire shaman noticed – and smiled.

**Number Two: Having Dinner Out**

She peered at his plate with something akin to suspicion during dinner – there was little else to do.

There had been a brief commotion involving Hao and the maitre d' involving reservations of tables, or lack thereof, but it had been quickly resolved. Anna rather suspected that this had much to do with the glint of maniacal flames within the shaman's eyes – like madness, only with a logic that defeated most, and conquered those who were not prepared to deal with the efficient passions of a child. She had not interfered, though a treacherous string of her heart had whispered, while watching Hao speak with the pleasant subtlety of an adult, _Why is Yoh the way he is if his brother has accomplished so much in only a little of his life?_

_Yoh_, she thought, with a sudden clarity. Her thumb pushed against the solidity of her collarbone, fighting away the remembrance of the way that his eyelashes dipped and the awkward smile drifted across his features.

"Thinking of something, Anna?" His voice and eyes were guileless, but still, even with her eyes closed, she could see the glint of flames in his gaze like the beginnings of insanity.

"I didn't know that you'd eat human foods." She said simply. "Don't you profess to hate them?"

He tipped his head to the side, affecting a quizzical air. Upon seeing that this had no effect upon her, however, he fixed his head back to its original position and bent to deftly pick at his food. "Even the worms of the earth have their uses." He said simply when he had taken a neat bite and swallowed it. "Though humans are less than worms, assumably some of their vices may have facets of virtue."

She cocked an eyebrow. "A complicated philosophy, for one so young."

"Not so young anymore." He smiled, and she thought that she could see the flash of someone else behind his eyes, light and dark at once, dressed in the robes of a monk, though with a long, pallid face whose features bore some memory of familiarity…

She brushed the thought away, tucking it securely at the back of her mind for later examination. Now there was much to occupy her – perhaps too much. "You're the same age as Yoh is." The itako said, prosaically. She herself ate rather well of the array of plates that had been set before them – though Yoh's training had been useful, there were times when she simply had to admit that her fiancé had no sense of how much spices were to be added, and had to eat something that pigs might actually accept that had been made in less than a day.

He smiled again, broadly, though now at a secret that she did not catch. "So I am." He murmured." His eyes curved into amused arcs. "So I am."

**Number Three: A Romantic Moment on Her Doorstep**

"You have a question." He said the words softly, but they were spoken nevertheless, with the meticulous assurance that only he seemed to manage. He stopped in the midst of their doorstep, tucking his fingers neatly beneath her chin as he lifted her unwilling gaze to meet his. "I can see it." He said, and smiled the open smile of a child. "Don't hide it – it only makes me afraid that it will be something bad."

She raised a thin eyebrow, her mouth contracting, working itself into a frown. "And if I don't want to tell you?" The blonde said sardonically.

"You will." He said amiably. "It is a question – you shall want an answer. The only questions that you would ask me are the answers that no one else can give you, and you loathe going without answers."

Ignoring the preamble of analysis and complications, Anna said, "Why did you ask me out, Hao?" Others might have asked this question quietly, seriously. She asked it with a brusque silkenness, like a lump of steel encased in velvet – blunt, but with her own style.

"What?" Even in the darkness, her head tilted away, she could sense his lips curving into a leisurely, sensual smile. "Don't you think that you're a pretty enough girl to catch my attention?"

Irritably, the fingers of her free hand – the other still caught up in his, digits looping together and overlapping like a single creature – twisted so that the knuckles glinted whitely beneath the moonlight. "Don't give me all that flowery silliness you use with your admirers." The itako said, her voice lifeless and deadpan. "I don't admire you the way they do, and I don't fall for things the way they do."

His eyes creased into half-circles of mirth as he tipped his head to the side. A careful hand slid around her waist, as he released her hand, tightening in possession. "Ah.." He breathed. "Cynical, are we? Well, I asked for the same reason that you said yes. Isn't it lucky that our purposes coincide, beloved Anna?"

He received a slap for his pains, and a deadly look that blazed from eyes like coal flashing into flames. "Don't underestimate me, Hao."

The dark-haired boy smiled languidly, but with an air of danger that sent a chill like frosted velvet down her spine. "Now, now," he tutted sardonically. In a flash, he had caught at her wrist before she could slap him again, and his eyes were dark with heady amusement. "Who's underestimating whom right now, do you think?"

His other hand slid two delicate fingers about her other wrist, grasping it so securely that she felt the solid friction of bones against bones. Neatly, he stepped forward before she could complete the classic move generally expected of women being assaulted by men in the dark, sliding his own lean leg between her two as his gaze fixed upon hers with a gentle entertainment. "We were interrupted last time," he breathed, his words coming lazy and softly against her mouth. The scent was sweet; musky chocolate and a curious, indescribable boy-smell that evoked a shiver. "Do you think that the same interruption will happen again?"

"Touch me," She said, near-silent and deadly, "and I swear to you that you will die."

"We all must die at one time or another." He replied logically, though he was still smiling the lazy cat's smile that had struck her so strongly. "I will die at my appointed time, my dear Anna, and there is nothing that you can do to speed or slow the process."

And, matter-of-factly, he kissed her. His hands, falling away from her wrists, wound lazily through her hair, as simply as though they belonged there, and for a single frozen moment, she thought, dazedly, that perhaps they did. Through the growing roar in her ears that dimly suppressed all sights in the world and obscured everything save him, she thought that she heard the ring of something ominous. But then he tilted his head to more securely fasten his lips upon hers and she lost the thread of that thought as well.

Anna was not weak, but this game was something new to her, and it would be a while yet before she would learn not to be quite so easily distracted by it…

-

_Black glints in the night, through the crack of the gradually opening door – like obsidian._

_Like a pair of eyes.

* * *

_

**Author's Note:** Twelve is when the bell tolls, twelve is when the ball starts rolling down the hill. (Well, not really. I like chapter 13 and 14, myself. Chapter 14 is character development, after all!) Because I've been so excessively late with updates this time, here's a few lines from the next chapter:

* * *

"She tripped," he suggested, eyes curving with mirth like sickle-blades, "and fell on my lips."

The voice rasped through the speaker like something dark, dredged from the shadows of a sewer and a bad dream. "_Seven days…"_

"I'm sixteen." He said quietly. "I can make my own decisions now."

"You'll die." She said, and it was not certain from the tone whether she enjoyed the thought or feared it – her eyes had gone flat with the inscrutability of a cat.

He tipped his head to the side and smiled. "Will you miss me?"

But she gave no reply.

* * *

Review Replies:

**Kasumi Nishikao:** Well, I know that /this/ one is short. :) And who're you calling sempai? –feels old and wrinkly-

**Inulover4eva:** Er… Hehe. Haven't updated in forever – blame it on the groundedness? (-hides away the draft of her novel with a sneaky expression-)

**bOw-doWn-tO-KeiKO:** It /is/ an Alternate Universe – although I suppose there's only so much credibility that that will stretch to. I need to have a talk with Yoh – he's getting OOC again, I think. X.x Although I imagine that he knows that Anna knows her own mind, and would never accept much questioning from him. Being silent is his own way of being supportative.

**Bibliomaniac:** Yeah – I had this scene planned out since forever and it still took me by surprise, too. xD But there was nothing else that I could really /put/ there – and Anna always did seem the type – to me at least – for a subtle kind of vengeance. Of course he's troubled – I'm just writing mostly in third-person Anna's-point-of-view. She's possibly my favourite to write from. Although I should probably get a hold on myself and see if I'm still anywhere in canon.

He wasn't crazy here, now was he? O:-)

**cherri-chan:** Hurrah for in-characterness! –does a mad dance- My biggest problem is holding my characters to their personalities. Yes, there were, although apparently you were the only one to catch them. I envy you – I'm learning Chinese by fringes and Japanese not at all.

**Dillpops:** Manta's got his own fanlisting, though. It's the littler people like Chocolove who need one – he never gets mentioned at all! Or we could just create a little people fanlisting. :D

**Frozenmagicfire:** Erhehehehe… -guilt-

**Kawaii Koneko92:** ;P Glad you think so.

**Black Hikari:** x3 Doesn't he? –fangirls him-

**Ketone:** Thank you!

**Trisyl:** Argh. Be gentle. What happened to gentleness? –laments-

**Nyago:** Thank you; I appreciate the vote of confidence. :) Sexy bastard is right – on both counts, although he doesn't really use it in the manga. He just goes shirtless at every opportunity.

**TenkunoMeiou:** I'm fine, I'm fine:) It's all right.

**eisshi16:** Tamao, I feel, just doesn't have enough depth in the manga. I'm hoping to bring her out a little here. Considering the fact that people've told me that my characterizations are madly out of whack before, consider her as a different character with the same name and see if it helps?

**anime-obsession260: **He IS adorable, isn't he? Particularly when he shows himself up like that.

**asn water:** You won't find out for… -calculates- Twenty more chapters, about, if planning goes right. Literally. Sorry.

**KristiexxNguyen:** Yes, they do, and I love her reaction – it shows more depth into her nature than the manga skimmed into. There's subtlety, but that's the hard, solid proof that she does love him, and it completely sold me. :D

**Sugacookie:** Thanks:D


	12. Trials and Tribulations

**Author's Note**: Happy birthday, Hao-sama! (Oh, and Yoh, of course.) The next chapter that comes up will be the freebie karaoke that I promised you guys, really. It's just that this chapter insisted on being written first, and I couldn't resist because I needed to practice my canon Yoh. I don't think I pulled it off all that well, but it's to the best of my ability, and so I must abide by it.

**Disclaimer**: I own the idea for Mankin birthdayfic! Oh, well, maybe not. But still. I must own SOMETHING.

* * *

Chapter Twelve: Trials

The phone rang.

Its echoes resounded through an empty house, another patent reminder that Anna was not present. The itako was always swift in grasping the black handle and answering its caller when she was in residence. Now, however, Yoh skidded into the room, to an awkward halt some two feet too far from the phone. He darted back, his eyes blank as he surveyed the thing momentarily (_what is this thing? Why isn't Anna--_) before plucking it from its hold.

"Hello?" He said politely into the receiver.

There came no reply save a dull crackling sound, the fizzing of a television that had been on for far too long.

"Hello?" The shaman repeated into the phone. His fingers wound about it, cradling it neatly to his ear with his usual smiling laziness. That smile vanished abruptly into a diffused bewilderment, however, as he felt something cool and thick drip against his ear. Something like…

"YARGH!"

In his hurry to discard the phone, it was tossed into the air and landed with an awkward _thunk_ upon the wooden floor. Scrambling gracelessly to fetch it again (Anna, he thought with a cringe that came instinctively, would have his head on a platter that he himself would be forced to pay for if he had broken it), he froze as a second sound emerged from the background seas of the first. The voice rasped through the speaker like something dark, dredged from the shadows of a sewer and a bad dream. "_Seven days…"_

The shaman's eyes narrowed a moment before relaxing into their typical carefree semicircles. "Cut it out, Grandpa." Yoh said, scrambling to his feet as he placed the phone between the narrow lines of his cheek and his shoulder again. "Have you been watching American movies again?"

The diminutive creature that had appeared through the receiver made a derisive noise as its luminous button eyes turned to regard him. In the soft glow that was cast from its form, its shape was defined and acknowledged as one of his grandfather's creatures – the tiny things with which his grandfather had trained him when he had been very young.

Rising to hover gently within the air, it ascended to a level even with his head, and smacked him resoundingly about the skull.

Apparently those youthful days weren't as distant as he had thought it was.

"What was that for?" He demanded, half-wincing into the telephone.

His grandfather's voice emerged from the receiver with a sparky crackle, comfortingly familiar in the empty darkness of the rented house. "The Americans based their Ring movie on one of _our_ creations, foolish boy! And it is always good to quote from American movies, although that was not the point of this call."

Dimly, still caressing his much-abused skull, Yoh said, "It wasn't?"

"I see you haven't changed much from when you were young." His grandfather's voice was sour. In the candlelit shadows of his own home, he leaned comfortably against the plush seat, kicking up his feet against the setting as he gazed musingly into the distance. "Do I have to beat every word into your head as I did then? I still have power enough to send plenty of the earth-spirits over the phone."

"I'll listen." The young shaman – although he had done nothing other than exhibit potential as of yet – promised hastily. His mouth twisted hurriedly into a wry, boyish smile. "So what were you calling for, then?"

Yohmei said the reason.

He went on speaking for a while into an empty silence as the color in Yoh's eyes diffused into shocked circlets, and the pupils widened into an expanding darkness…

"_WHAT?"_

* * *

He knew somehow, when they came home at last, with instinct that came of years learning to distinguish Anna's own powerful presence from the crowd (not a difficult thing; she shone with a striking brilliance, if with her own peculiar cast of luminescence) and to discern when it was near. And though it was not hers alone, he thought little of it. They had been out together, they came in together, Hao doubtless sporting a few bruises from the experience. With the significance of the news that his grandfather had told him, he could not conceive of a scenario in which neither person would be in a position to care. This was not only news, but news that would influence the whole of the shaman community. 

Yoh stepped towards the front door, the distracted intensity of his concentration rendering him childishly gawky, his angular bones more evident than ever in the moonlight, which did not refine his countenance as much as it intensified that which made him most _Yoh_.

His fingers sliding the screen door open, the dark-haired shaman turned to lift his head towards the figure that stood at the door, his lips already sliding open to exclaim the news, that—

It was only then that he realized that the figure was not one, but two.

She had wound her arms around him, tight with the constraint that made her herself, but that this had been granted at all burned like a shock, resting bright against the hollow of his throat, tempering his patience and flaying it to the quick. _His_ hand had drifted to the small of her back, the other placed as a light caress against hair that shone like ivory in the night. Probably she hardly felt it, did not see it at all, but Yoh caught it immediately, his gesture of possessiveness acknowledged with the kind of disbelief that the young shaman had never been good at dealing with.

He had always believed that everything would work out, that everything _must_ work out, for this was how life was, with its neatly trimmed endings and the corners that were always lined with silver or gold.

Was this, then, how things were destined to work out?

Hao opened his eyes. He had maneuvered it so that Anna faced away from the door, her back to Yoh and his blackly sceptical stare, or perhaps it had simply been his fortune. But whatever it was, nothing could deny that his eyes gleamed with mischief and something like triumph, his calm, sliding stare tainted with amusement and the worn threads of contempt. (If he had been careful enough to study his brother, to assure himself of what he had seen, he might have caught something else as well – the first undercurrents of a body making its demands, and the look of a soul that was not entirely in control…)

As though she had felt the change in his body (and perhaps she had; she was certainly close enough for the thought to be plausible), Anna turned as well. Her expression was ordinary enough, her dress unmussed so that Yoh could assume that this had been their first. But even the moonlight could not obliterate the memory of a flush within her pallid cheeks, or the slight, distracted, disorientation within her gaze.

"Yoh." She said. Her gaze was inscrutable, so that he could not be certain of the thoughts that passed through her mind, but her fingers were twisted up with Hao's own. The shaman bent over them with an exaggerated benevolence, presiding over the moment like a shadow.

"It was an accident." Hao said, before either of them could speak, but the upturned curve of his lips mocked whatever possibilities the sentence might have had. "She tripped," he suggested, eyes curving like sickle-blades with the mirth that was evident in every ion of his body, "and fell on my lips."

"An accident?" Anna said coolly, and returned her attention to him as though Yoh had never been. "Is that what you'd like to call it, then?"

"An accident," beamed Hao, although his own urbane assurance had reinstated itself. "of the _fortunate_ sort. And one that I should hope will occur more often in the future."

"I wouldn't count on it, if I were you." Anna said in her dry, matter-of-fact way, pulling her fingers from his grasp. But even as she did so, the long-haired shaman caught at her fingers, bringing them to his lips in a swift movement that gave her no time to react. He did not touch them, however, only breathed out a kiss that warmed her fingers peculiarly and sent a daze of _something_ through Yoh.

Then, he turned his attention towards his younger brother. "Ototo?" His smile was burnished with a malice that it appeared only Yoh could see. "Was there something that you had to tell us?"

_This is not the time for your teenage dramatics, your petty jealousies_, his grandfather had said, and the words echoed back to him now in an uncanny repetition. _Tell her of what is to come, so that she might be prepared._

"The Tournament is coming." He said simply. The news was delivered with the calm gravity that Yoh reserved for all things for which he could not demonstrate simple pleasure in living, but his entire visage was imbued with something stronger than merely seriousness, though he could not say it.

Anna raised her eyebrows. "And?" She said. Her voice was inflexible, taut as a bowstring. "We've known that it's been coming for a while. It's why you came to the city to train, after all."

"No." He shook his head. The brown strands before his eyes wavered with the gentleness of the movement. "You don't understand."

"_What_?" Said Anna, and now the softness of her voice was permeated with a subtle threat as well. "If I don't understand, then explain."

"The Tournament." Said the dark-haired boy. "It's coming _soon_."

The black of her eyes remained flinty, unyielding. "The Tournament?" said the itako. "The fight to become Shaman King?"

"The one where there are two kinds of battles; the long and the short ones." Hao said, with an exaggerated courtesy that furthered the sweet sensuality of his smile. He lounged against the woodwork now, eyes fixed amusedly upon his two companions. "The long ones take place over a week, perhaps more – opponents may choose everything short of an actual physical confrontation between the two humans to get the other to surrender, or be rendered unable to battle. It depends on subtlety as well as skill, not to mention timing and luck. And then, of course, there are also the short battles, which is a direct confrontation between two opponents, pitting furyoku against furyoku until one of them runs out and can no longer maintain Spirit Control."

"I _know_." Said Anna, her voice coldly precise. The strands of diluted gold that swung across her features did not obscure the freezing clarity of her gaze, or that she would not look at Yoh. "But that Tournament isn't expected until the Star of Destruction passes over the skies – and that's not for several years yet."

Yoh shrugged, though his gaze was no less puzzled than the diminutive fragments of bemusement that he could see reflected behind her iron control. "Apparently the star decided to come early." He said.

Her eyes narrowed in a sudden flare of anger, and she rapped him sharply across the forehead with her knuckles. Instantly, electricity jumped from his skin to hers in that single, brief touch so that her eyes were lanced with shock, and she withdrew her hand immediately. "Stars don't _decide_." The blonde said, and the unwavering quality of her voice masked the startlement that she had encountered at the spark that had apparently not yet died between them. "But why are you saying this now?"

The question was a reasonable one; though he was an Asakura, one of the most prestigious Shaman families in Japan, he had not yet acquired a spirit of his own. This was possibly due to the fact that he was more interested in solving the problems of their afterlife, which thereby left them unbound and free to go to Heaven. Certainly no one – perhaps not even Yoh himself, though he had never told – knew whether his strength was palpable, or merely a weak thing that bore no consideration.

Said the dark-haired boy, calmly, "I'm going to participate." And indeed, he looked entirely certain of himself, not unlike Hao in that moment. Anna took the moment to study him and evaluate the changes that were present now where they had not been before. The lines of his profile were as clean and sweeping as ever, the mouth familiar and endearing with its slight, boyish crook. His eyes had not changed either – though they had gathered intensity of vision, there seemed nothing else about his expression that differentiated from when he had still been hers, with an absolute assurance that made her throat ache now, for reasons that she did not understand, or refused to acknowledge.

Yet he had changed. He must have. Or had he always been so?

Silence reigned for a fleeting moment. Then--

"You? In the Great Tournament?" A smattering burst of careless, indulgent laughter – _adult _laughter directed with cavalier lenience towards an uncomprehending child. It was difficult to ascertain whether it was amusement or disdain that colored the older twin's gaze as he studied his sibling, only that it was not pleasant, and not a little predatory. "Does Yohmei want you dead, ototo? It's not a sight for children."

But Yoh stood a little straighter now, and there was an odd light that glinted through his eyes. "I'm sixteen." He said quietly. "I can make my own decisions now."

"Don't be a fool, Yoh." Anna's voice was harsher than Hao's. Her gaze was snappingly focused, vibrant with the potency that had always composed the majority of her persona. "You'll die." She said, and it was not certain from the tone whether she enjoyed the thought or feared it – her eyes had gone flat with the inscrutability of a cat.

He tipped his head to the side and smiled, with the heartbreaking sweetness that his brother could easily summon, and sincerity, as well, that rang true. "Will you miss me, then?"

But she gave no reply, only watched him as Hao did, with a studied force that restrained a tidal wave with its careful restraint.

Hao was the first to speak again in the interval of quiet. "You're not saying something. There's something else that Yohmei, your grandfather, told you that you haven't mentioned as of yet."

"My grandfather didn't say it." Yoh said quietly. His brother threw back his head (hair inky black tendrils in the shadowed moonlight) and laughed again, the sound ringing and clarion like a bell being struck.

"Playing word-games is _my_ habit." Said Hao, and his smile was distinctly tender, lending salt to the wound. "There was something else that you were told, and if you were told, then I must be told as well. After all," he remarked, with a little smile as he extended his hand, palm up, towards his twin, "You're my brother, aren't you?" The smile broadened, sweet and unkind. "You're a part of me. What you know, I must know as well."

"My grandmother said it," Yoh's eyes were cuttingly black, and ordinary enough until one looked and saw that he was careful to avoid even the slightest glance towards Anna as he spoke. Indeed, it did not seem that he looked towards anyone save a distant point upon the horizon.

Anna did not look at him, did not contemplate what thoughts were within his mind lest the intimations about his posture conjure up the thoughts of a young pink-haired girl again…

"Kino?" said the dark-haired shaman carelessly, disregarding the mounting tensions that carried on about him. His eyes gleamed like jewels in the dark, and there was a suggestion of laughter about his mouth as he curved an arm about Anna. Though the itako stiffened and moved slightly from his embrace, neither did she break free entirely. "She's still alive then? A pity. What did she say?"

"She wanted to remind us," said Yoh calmly, as though he had not seen Hao's casual gesture of possession, "of the tradition that Shaman Kings throughout the past, and Shaman King Candidates have also adopted—"

Hao's mouth curled amusedly. His own countenance looked older than ever in the evening, and there was something narrow and adult about his expression. "Will you speak, or will you simply dance about the subject all evening? I have better things to do than to watch you squirm." _Things, or people_, the lazy seductivity of his expression implied, and the possessiveness of his stance clearly indicated who it was that he had in mind.

His brother's gaze was a clear, lucid ebony, opaque and inscrutable in a way not unlike Anna's for the first time in his life.

"She wanted to remind us," he said precisely, "of the tradition that they had." He paused. The awkwardness within his expression returned in full force as he spoke the next words.

"Of each Candidate's selecting a Shaman Queen."

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hurrah! Although there was no Tamao this chapter – I want to develop her character! Rage at the horrors of school and the idea that I may actually have non-fandom writing to attend to! Fury! 

Here're some snippets from the chapter after the karaoke (No, I will not give anything away about the karaoke, except that if someone can effectively capture a picture of Hao from one scene in this chapter I will LOVE YOU FOR LIFE.)

* * *

"_I do not belong to you."_

"_I made a promise."_

"_I've had my training. You'll have yours. I expect to see you up at six tomorrow morning."_

* * *

Leave a review at the tone. Come on. Please? You know you want to. :D 

TONE.

And now for my review replies…

**Bow-down-to-keiko:** Thank you:) And the seven days thing... the Ring... it's just one of the many strange mental images crawling around my mind.

**pendulum-swing: **Murr! I've just never been very good at the narrative – let me know if you're still confused, and if so, what over.

**Kawaii Koneko92:** -nibbles on cookie, looking distinctly pleased- Nuu… chapter –fourteen- is climatic. If not at all romantic.

**TenkunoMeiou:** Heh. It's the Yoh/Anna romances that I'm going to have trouble with.

**Norimaki Sandwhip:** Well, this chapter really wasn't anywhere as subtle as I had hoped that it could be. Woe! I'm hoping the next one will be better.

**Trisyl: **I wanted to give something swift and dramatic. Present tense seemed best way. This chapter's a lot simpler, however.

**pendulum-swing:** That's rather the point – I'm not sure that I can get her to change sufficiently in time, but I want to develop her character. It's the ultimate challenge! –pose-

**BabyKaoru-Sama:** I have. :D

**anime-obsession260:** Yes, he was. –pokes him- Poor sweetie…

**Yuki KIKI:** Thank you:D I wouldn't say that my style is all that beautiful, more like unnecessarily elaborate, or whatever it was that Trisyl said. But I appreciate the compliment all the same.

And… could you really? I've been a bit worried that Yoh, especially, is OOC beyond all belief or conception. I think I managed to get Hao out of character this chapter too. -.-

As for long reviews – I like long. They tell me that someone actually cares more than just the usual amiable "good work", and they want me to get better. :)

**Dillpops:** Thanks. ;D Hmm… Chocolove, Ryu, Manta, Tamao, possibly the Ly Five, although they're not really manga-canon – anyone else?

**Ketone:** Thank you!

**Inulover4eva:** Aren't you the least bit sorry for Yoh at all? –hugs him madly- He caught them! On his own porch!

**Bibliomaniac**: She was maneuvered a bit in this chapter – I rather prefer her in the next chapter, as there's much more fun.

Hee. 3 It never actually shows what he's thinking, I don't think. This is both to cover up my shortcomings as a Yoh-writer and because it's simply more fun that way.

Well, Hao HAS had a thousand years experience. Perhaps he's learned to deal with women during that time?

I'm not sure about Hao POV, but scenes with him are plentiful in the chapters to come.

Thanks, as always, for a critical review.

**Janis:** Thank you:)

**BBShadowCat:** Hao-sama would hit all of us over the head and burn us to a neat crisp before he kissed us. -.-

**Pandorac:** Thankee! –bows-

**asn water:** Yes – poor Yoh. –pets him- He doesn't really deserve this abuse. I need to write in more Tamao.

**cherri-chan: **Yoh got a major part in this chapter – I hope that he's in character here… And, well – things happen, things change, but some things (i.e. Anna running around slapping people) will always stay the same.

It means that I don't really go to Chinese school, and I don't know that much Chinese, but I can speak it fluently and I'm overall good.

That's next chapter – I needed to get this one up first.

**bunny angel:** Yes! Behold the tension! I love the stuff – addicted to it. ;D But Hao's so beautiful – how could you kill something of such beauty? And you know it's going to end Yoh/Anna, don't you?

laughs- That he doesn't have the capacity for love is entirely the _point_.


	13. Karaoke: Part One

You're Mine

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Shaman King. Go away.

**Author's Note**: Sorry that it's been so long since my last update! I've been very, very busy. Fortunately, this section is very long; unfortunately, it's so long that I had to break it in two, if only to keep up suspense of some kind. Enjoy! And sorry I'm late; I owe you guys apology-fic for this. –shifty eyes-

* * *

Special Chapter: Karaoke Part One

"Ototo!" A bundle of cloth appeared to have been flung onto his bed. Muzzily, with a dizzied air and eyes that were not accustomed to opening at such hours, Yoh reluctantly peered up into the gloom. Questing hands, scrabbling intently to identify this mysterious new object, located a texture as though silk and burlap had been blended, and two curiously smooth objects beneath his fingers that seemed to flex as he touched them…

Hao arched a delicate brow. "My dear, _dear_ ototo." He drawled, but with far more of an amusedly condescending note as his brother's hands fumbled clumsily about his legs, "I thought you said that you didn't swing that way?"

A furious blush suffused his brother's cheeks, and Yoh hastily removed his hands, delving them into the safe – and warmer – cover of his bed. "True enough." He agreed embarrassedly, with his traditional unperturbable grin. Also in keeping with his own tradition, the shaman yawned exaggeratedly, though an eye remained faintly open to ensure that Hao was under surveillance. "'Re you just here to joke..?" He murmured drowsily. "S'too early f'r me to be up on…" A sigh twisted its way from his lips as he crumpled gently back into bed. "A weekend…"

"Ototo!" Hao prodded him intently, eyes brilliant as he fixed them upon Yoh's dozy features. "This weekend is important." As his younger brother began to regain some semblance of sensibility, he was aware that the fire shaman was grinning broadly. "It's our _birthday_. And as such, I've decided to take matters of party arrangements into my own hands this year, which means…" He allowed a dramatic pause to infuse the moment.

"We've invited everybody out to have a karaoke party." He allowed this last phrase to slip casually past his lips, and sat back, eyeing his younger brother's complexion with no minute amount of amusement as Yoh awakened abruptly.

"Kareoke?" The boy regarded his elder brother sceptically, though he paused a moment to marvel how alike they were still. The years had done nothing to broaden the differences in their physical appearances; the sharp lines of their features like swords mirrored each other in perfect parallels, and their eyes (liquid black) still possessed the same inflections, the same colors and the same bright glint. "But no one you know likes karaoke, do they?"

Hao laughed, and the sound was vivid with only a little gleam of malice to indicate why he had selected that particular style of birthday at all. "Well," he said, folding his hands across his knees in a bright, drawling grin, "it's time they expanded their interests. Isn't it?"

* * *

They looked the part of the motley party as they strode into the restaurant, Hao taking the malevolent lead, Yoh and Anna second, each with a reluctant hand seized by the long-haired shaman. The rest of the group trailed behind, looking alternately furtive and decidedly embarrassed. HoroHoro, for example, might have gotten away if Chocolove, insistent upon the ideal that he would not have to sing without watching everyone else embarrass themselves first, had not seized his ear and dragged him along the velvet floor.

"Remind me again," Ren said with a heavy irony under his breath that did not fail to penetrate the guards of his companions, "why I came here?"

Hao angled his head back, sweeping his gaze demurely from Ren to Yoh in a sardonic arc. "I'm sure you wouldn't like me to." Said the dark-haired shaman, and smiled widely as the Chinese boy turned faintly crimson, waving his spear with a murderous air. "And here's our table."

Chocolove and Horohoro glanced up with shining eyes, for although the table was an ordinary enough object, the banquet sprawled across its surface seemed a veritable feast that would take aeons to finish devouring. Dishes from every culture, in plentiful amounts, steamed invitingly upon its surface, and glinted at them. _Eat me_. It suggested – a comment with which the shamans were more than ready to comply.

But in the background, as the rest of the group settled down to eat, Hao watched, and his eyes were bright with unkindness.

* * *

"Karaoke?" Ren and Horo shouted in murderous synchrony before glaring at each other and continuing, separately.

"You're mad—"

"—absolutely insane—"

"—stupid blackmailing _baka_—"

"—have dignity, even though I went through Pirika's training—"

"—refuse to compromise the only son of the Taos—"

"—won't sing!" They finished together, and glared at each other again upon realizing that they had spoken together.

"Ah," sighed the shaman, turning a predatory smile upon all of his guests. "But this is a _karaoke _party. Would it be so still if there was no karaoke? No, before you leave, in return for the cake and the food supplied to you during the course of the party—" he did not look at anyone particularly, though his gaze seemed to rest particularly upon Chocolove and Horohoro, both of whom had large stacks of plates (now empty) before them, "—I think I'll have to ask that each of you sing at least once. Tamao," He turned his owlish dark stare upon her, unblinking and saturated with only the faintest hint of amusement, "Why don't you go up first?"

"M-me?" Instinctively Tamao shrank away, with only a faint, melting smile towards Yoh as the boy smiled at her too. "Karaoke? I-I—"

"You'll be ruining my party if you don't go." The dark-haired adolescent remarked with a mocking pout, though she seemed incapable of grasping the sardonic humor in his expression. "And," he added offhandedly, gesturing with exquisite simplicity towards the boy at his side, "Yoh's. It's your birthday party too, isn't it, ototo?" Maliciously, he smiled at the vague confusion within his younger brother's eyes. And it was Hao, perhaps, who saw best the troubled expression within her gaze as she lifted her chin, replete with a resolute sadness.

"I'll go then." She said quietly, and rose to her feet, standing upon her tiptoes to murmur blushingly into the stage manager's ear.

It cost only a few seconds before she was on stage; the boy had taken great care to arrange all things, even the order, beforehand, and the stage manager had his orders. As did certain other individuals…

Everyone preoccupied with the image of the young diviner arriving on stage, no one was in a position to notice Hao gently flickering his fingers towards the apparent disc jockey, who grinned conspiratorially and flicked a certain song into place, ready and awaiting only the pink-haired girl's debut.

At last, she consented to move onto the stage, feet slow with a curious awkwardness that was not, in ordinary circumstances, evident within her movements.

Timidly, quite as though she did not dare to approach the microphone as it was to be used, she grasped it with gently folded hands and whispered the unfamiliar words into the black cone as they appeared on screen, though her voice grew stronger with confidence as time passed.

_The dawn is breaking…_

_A light shining through_

_You're barely waking_

_And I'm tangled up in you…_

A bare pause skimmed her words.

_Yeah_

She wavered briefly in the face of the music as the melody twined into itself for a few moments, hesitating in her decision of whether to hum along. But that choice was swept from her hands as the lyrics appeared upon the screen again, scanning downwards so that she could see what came.

_But I'm open, you're closed_

_Where I follow, you'll go._

_I worry I won't see your face_

_Light up again_

_Even the best fall down sometimes_

_Even the wrong words seem to rhyme_

_Out of the doubt that fills my mind_

_I somehow find_

_You and I_

_Collide_

_I'm quiet, you know…_

_You make a first impression_

_But I found I'm scared to know I'm_

_Always on your mind _

Eyes widening at the curious appropriateness of the lyrics, she flushed a delicate rose hue, though she managed a pale smile towards a certain brunet in the audience. But the question was, since the two were seated so closely together at the seats of honor – to whom was she bestowing that pallid beam?

_Even the best fall down sometimes_

_Even the stars refuse to shine_

_Out of the back you fall in time_

_I somehow find_

_You and I_

_Collide._

She repeated the chorus and several randomly strewn words here and there, but began to creep towards the back of the stage as the melody died away… only to be called back with a round of thunderous applause – and a few whistles as well.

Grinning tremulously with the evidence of her triumph, the rose-haired girl was ushered from the stage as the next victim was called up, and immediately darted to the Asakura twins.

"You did surprisingly well." The elder of the two drawled, reclining back in his seat to regard her with a certain amount of amusement, and—was that veiled surprise that she perceived within his lightless gaze?

Yoh, however, smiled at her with a heartbreaking openness. "You have a beautiful voice." He said simply, and she found the flush that she had thought banished gradually climbing up her neck again as their eyes found each other and interlocked…

"So." Absorbed as they had grown within their own sentiments, they flickered in startlement like easily smothered candleflames as the elder shaman spoke. "Who's going next?" Lustreless dark eyes trailed languidly about the table, settling at last, upon…

"Little Ainu." At the condescending title dealt to him, HoroHoro flickered to attention, eyes narrowing with an impotent ill-will.

"Why don't you go next?" Hao suggested blandly, as though he did not see the vivid malice growing within the young shaman's eyes. "After all, Ren shall be going after you, and I'm sure that he would like a few tips on how to perform it correctly."

"What!" The spike upon the Chinese shaman's head had grown to such proportions that it threatened to overtip his head itself. "I don't need the aid of any idiot—"

"That fool could stand to take a few tips from me—"

They stopped, each in the midst of the other's interruptions, and glared at each other. The blue-haired boy was the first to break the deadlock, stalking off towards the stage with all the sulky arrogance of a wounded panther, though he had not that animal's grace. As he stumbled up the steps to the stage, Hao gave a faint inclination of his head towards the stage manager, mouthed the Ainu's name with a grace that the employee read with ease – and settled into his place as the resonant, faintly punk-ish rock music began to resonate through the room…

Appearing rather startled by the swiftness with which events took place, the snow shaman scrambled up the rest of the steps, hastening into place – and nearly tripping over the microphone in the process.

Ren put a slender hand over his eyes, muttered, "_Baka_," and did not look for the rest of the performance, despite the sound of HoroHoro's voice beginning to ring out through the room as he hummed to the guitar riffs of the beginning…

Bowing his head, he lifted in a dramatic gesture, and grinned ferally as he began to sing,

_I'm the kid that no one knows_

I live a life I never chose With these thoughts in my mind 

_On my own…_

_My own…_

About half-way through the first verse, as a few wan cheers soared up from the audience, he began to perform a curious little hopping dance that thrummed in synchrony with the song that now reverberated through the dome. As catcalls and jeers greeted this performance, however, he ceased again, and merely continued to sing in a voice that cracked faintly as it hit the lower notes, and possessed very little flexibility in its range.

_I'm face to face with the unknown_

_My scary movie will be shown_

_I've got one evil mind_

_On my own…_

_My own…_

The lyrics themselves, Ren thought, were things that Horo would have never chosen. And yet—and yet… there was something that belonged uniquely to the shaman, it seemed, in the rhythm, the _soul_ of the music.

And that was it; the soul of both the music and the snow shaman were one and the same.

_We take from one another_

_And never stop to wonder_

_How it feels from the other side_

_But nothing lasts forever_

_When stupid turns to clever_

_Why are you surprised_

_Little know-it-all…_

_Ten bucks in my hand_

_Little know-it-all_

_Don't cry, I understand…_

As the music began to break into its instrumental sections again, the shaman threw the microphone into the air… and began to calmly walk away. As it thunked down on the stage, a faint grin twisted his lips, though he was careful to hide in darkness until the raucous hisses of disapproval died away from the audience.

The song continued to play of its own accord, but the cerulean-haired adolescent no longer intended to be there to support the melody with his admittedly rather strained voice. As he seated himself, sprawling his feet widely across the table, he grinned at his arch-rival, a silent challenge as the last of the notes in the song began to fade away.

"Think you can beat that performance, Ren?"

"Huh." The violet-haired shaman glanced away, though his contempt was clearly in evidence. "A squawking bird," said the Chinese boy derisively, "could have matched, and indeed bettered, your performance. You are a terrible singer."

"Better than you, at least!" Horo slammed an irritated fist against the table, restraining the urge to yelp as it calmly began to swell in protest. "Where's your confidence, pointy-haired one?" He challenged. "Or do you only do your singing at home?" He continued in such taunts, never noticing that the gold of the other boy's eyes had stirred, and in their depths was something less than kind…

"Very well." The words were spoken evenly at last in the middle of the Ainu's boasts. "I shall sing."

And, as though he did not find the boy suitable with which to communicate, Ren rose to his feet and swept to the front of the stage, pausing only briefly by the stage manager to whisper a few choice words that paled the man's features and sent him bustling to obey. Once he had reached the center of the stage, he stood, squinting a little, hands fitted casually into his pockets as he surveyed his audience of the evening.

They were not the people that he would have selected, but nevertheless… there was nothing that could be done about it now. Nor did he intend to; not with Horo still jeering in the audience, of the opinion that Ren, only son of the _Tao_ family, could not do something that he, Horo, lowborn child of some Ainu woman in a backwater village of the north, could. Such was idiocy, madness; and he intended to prove it so.

As the familiar jazzy melody floated out, drifting listlessly into the ears as it was blared by the tinny speakers of the club, he closed his eyes, allowing his audience to fade. He opened his mouth to sing…

_yamiwada wo kirisaku tachi koso_

_sogiyoto shite kita kokoro no makari ka_

_sei to shi wa hirameki no ma ni te_

_kumo ha chirikiri ha kiete_

_seijou na hasuji wa ichijin no kaze wo okoshi_

_tatakau sube wo hibaku tosu_

_jakunen to yama wo mireba kogi kara toozakaru_

_sume ni yaiba no shita ni koso "kokoro no oite iki yo"_

_shishi honteki no tamashii tora wo toraete kare_

_onore no iro sae mo keshi hokori made mo sute yuke_

_onore no moteru mono nomi chie no minamoto toshi_

_sugata wo todome ne mizu tonareru ka "itsu no hi ni ka ha"_

_kaminari kaze ai usuri mizu to hi ai ireba_

_seihitsu no hako no naka ni itachi wo shizume you_

_sei-san ni itaru jisetsu made hitooyumi totemo tome wo shirazu_

_jiyuu ni kitari jizai ni saru_

_hori to kase kokoro wo tsuku shite_

_hitoshimi yusamete sutomete hageme_

…and closed his mouth again as the music faded away.

Pirika glanced irritably at her brother. "Horo," she said irritably, slapping him upside the head, "Close your mouth. Something's going to fly in."

Her brother obeyed with great difficulty.

(to be continued...)

* * *

**Author's Note:** Part Two should be up in a few days (yes, really); I only need to research a few things and decide upon Yoh's song… :D And you just –know- that the Asakuras (and Anna) will dedicate their songs to Certain People, won't they? Anyway, onto the review replies!

Review Replies:

**Kasumi Nishikao:** Thank you:) Rather wish that more people would be more like you and not spam, although I don't mind if there's good input to be had. Sorry for taking such a long time.

**Pendulumxswing:** Thank you. A pity that I had to take a brief break in order to make HoroHoro do a weird dance. –evil smile-

**anime-obsession260:** I know. But not yet, aye?

**BabyKaoru-Sama: **What happens next isn't to be revealed until the second part of the karaoke party is over, sorry… :P

**lil.blu.clover:** Thank you! –bows- I try. But, erm. There'll be arcs for each; voting is rather pointless now, as there'll be both.

**Dillpops:** Huh, Lyserg's father? –laughs- Well he IS mostly untouched except for in those Meet the Parents fics involving Lyserg… As do I, actually. There's a lot of material there about parental neglect and refusing to let their child go even with someone who might actually care for them on the line.

**Inulover4eva:** No, I don't think you –did- mean that. After all, we all know you covet Hao yourself. Why add Anna to your competition:P

**Hana:** I'm touched. Really. :)

**asn water:** He can pick Tamao if he likes! –pets him- For he is my baby. Er. Not really.

**TenkunoMeiou: **I plan to.

**cherri-chan:** Well, what do you THINK he'll do? He loves Tamao, of course, and wants to keep her safe. And at the same time there's the revival of a feeling not quite dead for Anna… Great Spirit, I love fanfics. :D

Yes, I'm Chinese; I speak Mandarin though not Cantonese, and so adore Ren.

Yep. Strangely, however, he sings in Japanese – that's his image song he's singing. I may add detail later, but I was in a hurry just now; I've got to get off soon.

**Bibliomaniac:** -shakes head- My other fic, As Far as the Soul Goes, is the one set after the manga. This is definitely AU; I wanted a rather more in-depth Tournament and a deeper look on how the whole thing evolved.

squashes- Quit reading my mind. I'm sure it's bad for your health; look how flat you're getting through my squashing:P

Well, Anna kept talking about how she'd become a 'Shaman Queen' in the manga. But she wasn't going to win the Tournament, and surely Shaman Queen couldn't be an official position unless you won the Shaman Fight… Thusly, the selection was born. It'll be elaborated upon in later chapters, I promise.

Mystery is what makes Hao /Hao/. Besides, he'd kill me if I sold tickets into his mind.

**Hatami:** Thanks for the feedback; sorry for the wait. :)

**jagan-I:** I think your review may have been cut off. –apologetic look-

**Andrea Nefisto:** It's all right. Only one vote would have been necessary to get your point across. Thanks for reviewing, though.


	14. Karaoke: Part Two

You're Mine

**Disclaimer:** I've realized by now that I don't own Shaman King. I hope that you do too.

**Author's Note**: Do you realize that in three days I've received about 123 hits on my fanfic? All I can really say is, wow. I had no idea that about nine people visited my fanfic in the last few days. I feel special. :) Really. –waves to all the invisible people that she never greets because she has no idea that they're there- Hey! I see you! Thanks for reading my fanfic and my inane greetings! If you see these at all!

Also, I love Hao. And I have chapter 13 on my hard drive, ready to go. No slow updates this time; a week on the outside, although maybe slightly more because now I must work on Fridays. And my updates prevaricate a lot, because to be honest I am completely, utterly squeeful over feedback and therefore...

Did I mention I love the next few chapters? Really. The character who re-enters the stage has so much complexity that's unexplored in other fanfics that I couldn't help but throw him into his misery again and… mmf! Can't say too much. Those of you who actually read my author's notes, notice that I don't want people voting anymore because there's no use voting for what's past, feel free to guess who it is. :)

* * *

Karaoke: Part Two

He twisted his dark head about, eyes gleaming with the faint innocence of his mischief.

"Anna," suggested the shaman, his mouth curving up into a double-edged smile as his gaze struck her own, "why don't you go next?"

Her eyes had flickered up, and they held his now, levelly, with no hint of retreat or balking to mark her as one inferior to him. To those unaccustomed to the subtlety that passed for speech between the two, it might have seemed an ordinary meeting of eyes; but the blonde's held glints of steel that might be turned upon Hao if he should chance risking her displeasure.

"I don't sing." The _itako_ said, neutrally, though the faint movement of her wrist drew attention to her fingers, curled as though she were ready to back that statement with physical evidence that she would not be made to do what she did not want to.

He turned, tipped his chair so that they drew close, their noses centimetres apart. "You could try." He breathed, as his eyes neared hers. (The scent of him drifted like fire; chocolate warmed by the gradual pulse of embers and flames, drawling slowly over her tongue and down her throat.)

She snapped her head up, rigid, the pieces snapping together as though it were what she had been meant to become. Her eyes were brittle with ice, encased with a bright shadow whose outlines seemed aflame. "I don't think I will."

"Are you so sure, Anna?" The shaman seemed strangely melancholy, somehow, his lashes drooped down, overcast and dark, and his mouth made a sad moue that his eyes caught the reflection of (in her own unwavering gaze) and parodied, glittering and sardonic. "After all, everyone else has gone, and Yoh and I will go—"

"Don't be annoying, Hao."

"You always seem to think the worst of me." He pressed his hand over his heart in a perversely familiar gesture; she resisted the urge to brush his hand aside to check if there truly existed a beat beneath his skin. His head tilted inquiringly to the side, though his eyes were still cool in the gloom; shadowed locks fell over his shoulder like a waterfall of darkness. "What have I done to you that makes you so cynical?"

She arched a brow, her eyelids never lifting. "You won't stop pestering me until I go, will you." It was not a question; she rose immediately after it, as though she did not desire his speech in return. "Tell the stage manager the song you want played." She threw over her shoulder, carelessly, as she stalked towards the stage. "You would have done it anyway, but you don't need to make it a secret that you've manipulated every instant of this evening."

"Have I?" Hao murmured, and his mouth worked into a broadened smile, faintly edged with malice. He made a quick nod towards the manager, flickering fingers in an unmistakable gesture. And the audience quieted as Anna drew her first, clacking step onto the stage.

She did not look herself beneath the harsh, white lights of the platform; her wiry body was exposed as thin, all edges and joints of a girl like a scarecrow who snarled and barked. But as the music came on, it wound about her, so that the lights seemed to dim, and a soft elegance overcame that initial appearance of something like to plainness. She was not plain, this _itako_. That, of all things, they could be certain of.

She grasped the microphone with the easy confidence that she had always dealt in life, raising her chin so that the light, instinctive tremor in her fingers was masked. (What Anna did, she did without hesitance, and well. And wondered, occasionally, how heavily this destiny pressed upon her, that she should do so.)

_An offering of reasons  
We put them all away  
A covering of treasons  
That one by one we let slip away _

She sang as she always knew she was capable of singing, her voice pitched low to match the peculiar man who put the words to the melody. They rang powerfully over the stage and past it, into the echoing darkness where only a few faces were familiar; a few faces whose sight she kept to in that alien gloom.

The song did not describe her situation; it did not fit her at all. Hao did not – could not – understand her. (Or was that simply another maneuver, another manipulation whose depth she had missed?) So why was it that a shudder traversed over her shoulders like a cloak fitting itself to her skin?

_A solitary dancer_ (and the solitary dancer glared at Hao as the realization dawned upon her)_  
So lost upon her stage _

_I have seen you on the edge of dawn  
Felt you there before you were born  
Balanced your dreams upon the edge of thorns  
But I don't think about you anymore _

_A study made of winter  
Of summers long ago  
And dreams that use to glitter  
Safely now hidden under snow _

And Yoh remembered the day beneath the sunlight, the leafless branches flung like some wildly intricate pattern over his head and hers, turning to speak and finding the moment broken by a pair of black eyes that glittered, even then, with malice.

(They glimmered stronger now, pulses of disjointed light, as he watched her, and Yoh wondered how Hao could ever have a use for her – why he wanted her so that he would challenge his brother, whom he had humored and sought to strengthen all his life, for her.)

_And so we end this chapter  
And let the stage lights fade _

_I have seen you on the edge of dawn  
Felt you there before you were born  
Balanced your dreams upon the edge of thorns  
But I don't think about you anymore_

_I have seen you on the edge of dawn  
__Felt you here before you were born  
__Balanced the dreams upon the edge of thorns  
__But I don't think about you any more…_

_Anymore…_

The piano notes began again, tiny trills that faded up and down the keyboard until at last, they faded… into darkness. Without a second word, an excess bow or flounce, Anna executed an inflexible obeisance towards her audience and turned to stalk down the stage-steps in a flare of her usual black skirt. She returned to the table in silence, tight-lipped, refusing to speak save to accept an occasional dish that was passed her way.

"You did well, Anna-sama." Tamao managed to whisper timidly after a few stammered starts. Anna's mere look was enough to brighten her cheeks with vivid crimson. (Her fingers, gripping the table, went white. She stared down at her own plate and did not look up again, even as Yoh laid a few careful fingers across her knuckles in quiet sympathy.)

Hao smiled at her, warmly, but she did not respond; her eyes were huge and flaring with some alien emotion as she turned to look at him once, before returning her attention to the laden plates before her.

Ren took the opportunity to be centerstage again; upon emerging from his brief affair with his adoring audience, he had promptly been caught up in a brief but noisy quarrel with HoroHoro. Both of the shaman now sported two lumps on their skulls – neither of which the other would admit to being hurt by.

"Everyone's been except you and Yoh," The Chinese shaman said, in tones that were deliberately, pinpointedly accusatory. "Was this your idea of fun, _Hao_?" The absence of the honorary prefix was left hanging in the air, a subtle challenge to the dark-haired shaman's strength. "Hanging each of us up to dry, putting us through the wringer—"

"My dear Tao," The fire shaman drawled, "Is that your idea of torture? Being made to sing? Considering your own voice had Yoh clapping his fingers off—" At this, Ren flushed as crimson as Tamao ever had, cheeks gaining a vibrant color as he glanced instinctively towards the aforementioned boy, and then, quickly, to the floor. "—I shouldn't think that this party was the _entire_ failure that you thought it, do you?" Though he had not paused in his flow, nevertheless Hao had caught the abrupt color in the Chinese shaman's cheeks.

"Nevertheless," he added, voice rolling with a soft, arrogant burr, "if you really think yourself cheated, both Yoh and I will be more than happy to accommodate you, won't we, Yoh?" A glint of mischief in his eye, the shaman continued, with a certain amount of calculated malice, "And perhaps my brother would even dedicate a song to you, Ren." He appeared to contemplate this, as Ren began to look steadily more and more infuriated – and slightly alarmed.

"I'll leave that for you to think about." He said abruptly, rising to his feet. "But for now, in order to fulfil the promise that I made… _I'll_ go."

Smiling blandly at the astonished group of shaman, he swept from the table, swaggering – though that movement implied an unfounded arrogance that was not evident in Hao's manner; his walk came of practice and the assurance that he had always been correct- towards the stage. A few murmured words in the stage manager's ear – which was always open to the suggestion of money – brought him to…

"Where's that kisama going?" Ren scowled ominously, shoes squeaking against his chair as he stood on tiptoe in an effort to locate the fire shaman.

Horo, who was mostly on tiptoe on _his_ chair in order to keep a wary eye on Ren, said, in tones of fervent hope, "Perhaps he's gone home."

"And left the rest of us here stranded with the bill to pay?" The suggestion only infuriated the violet-haired boy all the more. "Kisama!" Shouting his traditionally obscene battlecry, he began to brandish his glaive with far more meaning than he had of late.

"Sit down, Ren." Said an affectedly easy voice to his side. Yoh smiled up at his oftentimes rival and occasional friend. "I'm sure that my brother wouldn't abandon us like tha—ah, there he is!" His tone warmed with languid ease as he gestured towards the boy so easily recognized as Yoh's twin and brother.

For a moment, there was a stunned silence.

Chocolove was the first to break it, peering in surprise towards the apparition on stage. "But…" he muttered, "What is he _wearing_?"

Somewhere towards the front, a girl appeared to faint as the eldest of the Asakura siblings strode onto the stage. And it became evident to all precisely what he was wearing. He was garbed in…

_A suit, a black overcoat that appeared tailormade, so neatly did it conform to the lean lines of his body and accentuate their predatory vividness. Beneath it, there peeked out a hesitant, starchy white collared shirt, and its sleevecuffs curled neatly about his wrists as he moved onto the stage. Formal trousers accompanied that waistcoat; black as well, though they fitted to his legs well enough that there appeared to be no complaints about the formality of his dress._

Turning as he strode into the midst of the stagelight, he grinned innocently towards his companions, eyes veiled with some secret that, it appeared, was his alone to keep, for he pressed two fingers in a silencing gesture to his lips and turned to nod at the stage manager. He whirled a little casually as the guitar riffs commenced, sounding throughout the club with a buoyant, though typically conceited, beat. As the audience began to grow restless, however, he murmured at last, into the microphone, _"All right_.

_I am intrinsically no good_…" 

The line was pronounced with a flavoured sarcasm, and the light within his eyes glinted with mocking laughter withheld as he sang the lyrics that had been provided. Where some of the others had stuttered and shuffled their feet, he seemed like light itself, with that illumination's mercury-quickness, which enabled him to dance with a natural beat all his own from one side of the stage to another, glance up sharply at precisely the right moment, and smile.

_I have a heart that made of wood…_  
_And I am only biding time  
__Only reciting memorized lines  
__  
And I'm not fit to touch  
The hem of your garment…_

He extended patronizingly poised fingers in his table's direction, catching, as he did, the slow infuriation of Ren's features as he began to contemplate whether Hao was guilty of incest, and the vivid scarlet that already adorned Tamao's. Only Anna seemed utterly unconcerned with his song; as though utterly unaffected by it, she had begun to pick lightly at the flaws within her fingers, snapping off loose bits of skin with the perfect control that she had always exemplified.

Instinctively, as Hao's song began, Yoh had glanced towards her, and it was now still that he surveyed her, eyes fixed upon her with liquid concern.

"Anna," the boy said very gently, and already he had begun to extend a tentative hand to grip her shoulder, "are you all ri—"

A wiry-thin arm extended itself, slapping his support away. "I'm fine!" The itako's reply was brusque, laden with a fury that she did not ordinarily allow herself to demonstrate. But, she thought grimly, fighting the fine tremor that tensed her body, there were exceptions when it came to Hao. It seemed that there always would be.

_No, no I'm not fit to touch_  
_The hem of your garment…_

He revolved again, but in a careless, elegant motion that caused his black waistcoat to fly up around his arms, which were extended into the air. As the girls within the audience screamed, the speed of the motion whipped the garment from his body, leaving him with a collared white shirt, apparently starched and buttoned primly into place. There was a kind of sensual quality to his smile, however, that pervaded that garment and added still more volume to the fangirls' screams.

Aside from the new development regarding his clothing, however, as the riffs ended and the words began to flicker onto the screen again, Hao allowed himself to sing again, though his eyes remained fastened eternally to the table in the back…

_I have no love but only goals_  
_How very empty is my soul  
__It is a soul that feels no thrill  
__It is a soul that could easily kill_

"Too right." Anna remarked caustically, though there appeared to be no one in a state of mind sensible enough to hear and appreciate it.

_And I'm not fit to touch_  
_The hem of your garment  
__No, no I'm not fit to touch_  
_The hem of your garment…  
__Yeah, yeah_. 

But a new development had occurred; upon the second 'yeah', the dark-haired shaman leapt off of the stage, landing in the midst of the crowd. Parting automatically around him, a pressing audience of apprentices to a true showman, few people noticed as the stage manager mouthed furiously at the stagehands. With the grudging reluctance of fascination and laziness, they began to extend his microphone cord as well as manipulate the stagelight so that it followed his path as he began to saunter casually towards the table that he had so recently occupied.

_Yeah_

He murmured into the microphone, and many more things, though the denizens of his table hardly noticed, not with his eyes fixed mesmerisingly upon their own… At last, as the melody wound back into lyrics again, his song resumed, though it seemed as though the words came through his mind alone; certainly his sight was not occupied with anything save a certain two girls at his table…

_I am intrinsically no good…  
__I have a heart that made of wood…_  
_And I am only biding time  
__Only reciting memorized lines_

The last word was uttered with a scathing tone that its original singer had doubtless not intended to imbue it with, but nevertheless, still he ventured forwards, now circling his table with something akin to a rapacious glint within his eye.

Ren thought that perhaps he had seen such a look before – in the eyes of the beasts that his father had once brought home in cages, to frighten him with in the dark, and to strengthen him with the amalgamation of fear and power. (They had been great, slavering things, with madness and a ferocious intelligence that had coalesced at the back of their minds until it had been honed and sharpened with purpose that they watched him with now, edgy, wary, and above all; conscious.)

The littler Ren had thought that such looks remained so; only in the eyes of the beasts that had not the intelligence enough to carry out the mad plans evident within their gaze.

But the elder Ren knew different now, in this consuming, sensual darkness. Hao was anything but dim; and what he wanted, he procured by any means necessary.

_And I'm not fit to touch  
The hem of your garment… No, no_, he said, though the sweet poison within his tone seemed to have redoubled over the course of the song, and now could murder quite a large rat in its tracks.

_I'm not fit to touch  
__The hem of your garment…_

He had traced his path around the table, and now appeared to pause where Anna and Tamao had been (inadvertently? Anna no longer thought so; it had begun to seem more and more as though Hao had anticipated and premeditated every single detail within this event, including his own song) seated.

Carefully, with more of a raw, tragic note than he had employed in any other section of the song, he sang, with a fragile note to his voice,

_No, no I'm not fit to touch_  
_The hem of your garment…_

He had begun to lift his hand, and now it trailed towards her, tracing the line of her cheek. Frozen in place – by fury or embarrassment that he had dared to do this to her in public – her eyes smouldered with the fury that her hands itched to express, though she had not yet acted.

_No, no I'm not fit to touch_  
_The hem of your garment…_

And finally, as the lingering notes wavered and fell away into the more rhythmic regularity of the song, she thought she heard him laugh – and was up in moments. The spell had broken over her, but despite that tiny end, she still intended to exact her revenge.

A hand flew out, and the blonde drew a grim satisfaction from seeing the scarlet mark blossom upon his cheek. That assurance wavered only slightly as she saw that he was smiling, and cupped the mark that she had dealt him as though it were a precious thing.

_Yeah, yeah._

Grinning still, he slipped back into the crowd, towards the stage with a backwards pace, and eyes that never failed to leave her bloodless features. The music died neatly, in a clean split that enabled to fade away just as he had ascended to the center of the stage once more.

Pausing there, he executed a flawless bow, and luxuriated in the thunderous applause that emitted from the audience, along with several – female – cries for an encore. He did not oblige, however, but slipped back into his seat, still garbed in that – _ridiculous-looking_, thought Anna, though it was more for the purpose of thinking it than for any sort of truth in that statement; Hao, as always, was resplendent – suit.

"Did you enjoy the performance, Anna?" There was always a peculiar inflection upon the second syllable of her name, as though they were two separate words entirely.

Coldly, she glanced unconcernedly over her food, and began to pick at the cold remains with a sullenly muffled fury. "It was all rather dull." She responded coolly, though she would not look up to say the words. "I wouldn't say that I noticed very much of a performance in the process."

"Oh?" He mocked her coolness by affecting airs himself; his palm dug sharply into his cheek as he said, sadly, "And I thought that this mark was a token of your appreciation, too."

She glanced up to catch his smile. Her eyes narrowed intently, mouth curving into an ugly line of hatred that did not quite suit her habitually inscrutable features.

"Must you always be such a—what was the word Ren used for it?" She tapped a spoon delicately to her teeth, though her eyes never wavered from his. "Oh, yes," she said deliberately, with an edge of savagery that made him smile, "A _kisama_."

He laughed merrily as though she had said something amusing, and gestured for her to regard the stage instead. "After all," He murmured, and it was only then that she noticed the absence of the boy seated to her left, "My ototo will be performing the next."

* * *

Yoh had been bustled and gestured towards the stage, and he stood bemusedly at its steps now, staring at the wood as though he found something intriguing about the patterns of its grain.

"Hurry up, boy." The stage manager was looking at him impatiently. That strange boy who looked like this one, with the hypnotic, loathsome gaze, had paid him for the evening, but nothing was worth dealing with him for even an extra moment. He thought longingly of the hours when he would be freed from this madness at last, and gestured brusquely at Yoh, his eyes narrowed, mustache bristling. "We haven't got all evening."

Yoh glanced up, smiled dreamily, and stepped up the stage. "Of course we do." He said, over his shoulder. "What's life for, if not to relax?"

"To make money, maybe?" The stage manager retorted under his breath, glaring apprehensively over his shoulder. Hao was Worth Something. Therefore, in all likelihood, this boy who looked like him was probably Worth Something too, and therefore Not Worth Offending.

"Money." Yoh mused, pausing for a moment. (At the table, Anna watched the stage, her eyes sharp as the yellow, needle-curves of a hawk's gaze.) He looked up. His eyes were the charcoal-dark of embers, and warm. As he stepped up to the center of the stage, which protruded out into the dining area, he glanced down once, met her eyes with that faint, questioning hesitance. Then, as though he had only realized that his eyes had met hers, Yoh broke into a smile, his head tilted to the side in a wry expression. And he turned to the microphone.

_I cannot follow you, my love,  
you cannot follow me.  
I am the distance you put between  
all of the moments that we will be. _

He sang the words softly, as though they were not words at all, but whispers carried on the breeze, meant for a single person alone. For Tamao, there would have been the gentle melody, the song that would have made no bones about what he said, what he meant, the gentleness that had ever characterized him. But Hao curled his fingers and only smiled; it was evident that there would be no gentleness. Tonight was a celebration, not of love and of the sweetness that might be derived thereof, but of the birth of something dark like shadows and hard like diamond that would cut at the world until its rotting wounds had healed.

Hao did not play chess; he considered the game barbaric, too simplistic with its blandly carved pieces to suit him. But he thought of Yoh, the king, backed into a corner as the melody closed in and surrounded him inexorably.

And smiled.

_You know who I am,  
you've stared at the sun,  
well I am the one who loves  
changing from nothing to one. _

He watched the crowd, smiling faintly still, although the words did not brook smiling, and there was only one person that they were meant for, as Hao had intended.

Tamao watched with something like to the fawning eagerness that she had always possessed. But as Hao's head moved into her range, a spark leapt in her gaze; something glittering like the fire that the shaman lit at his fingertips…

It seemed that Mikihisa had seen something in her that the rest of them had missed – but would not be permitted to miss for much longer. (She had been born dull, quiet, given all that she needed and spoon-fed like a delicate, porcelain figure.

They made soldiers of porcelain now, and Tamao understood, now, what it was to fight for someone you loved.)

_You know who I am... _

_If you should ever track me down  
I will surrender there  
and I will leave with you one broken man  
whom I will teach you to repair. _

His eyes flittered to the pink-haired girl, where they rested and smiled, though his lips moved to follow the song that spun out before him like a path.

_You know who I am... _

_I cannot follow you, my love,  
you cannot follow me.  
I am the distance you put between  
all of the moments that we will be. _

_You know who I am... _

The song faded, from the bright flames vanishing into the ashes. Yoh smiled as the music wound to a close, and whispered something into the microphone, his gaze vague and diffused so that it encompassed two figures at once.

Anna started from her seat before returning abruptly. (Her hands gripped the wood as if she thought to find a sword between her hands.) And Hao smiled.

(to be continued…)

* * *

**Author's Note**: Wow, Yoh's song took some finding. –laughs- I didn't decide until up to the last minute what his song could be, and then suddenly I was listening and I knew. The chorus, I thought, was perfect as it was.

Nothing really can be said, can it? What'd you think? What'd you like? What'd you hate? Tell me, because I know that the majority of you will leave me with one sentence reviews otherwise, and I'm dying to know.

Also, what do you think of Yoh? But before I deluge you in questions, here're my replies from the last time.

Review Replies:

**Dillpops:** I always did think of it as a manga not intended for adults; not because it wasn't mature enough, or because the plot wasn't intricately fascinating enough, but because it showed how children – if you can call them that, but remember their ages; it's hard to, but we ought to try – could be independent, could live without adults, given the support. I'm not sure what that has to do with anything, but I felt that it was a point to be made; and it was one of my main attractions to it; that 'children' could be powerful beings in their own rights, and capable of controlling the world. Or something to that effect.

Hee, well, Anna's song was as Anna as I could make it; I don't think either twin would've appreciated it very much if she'd dedicated it to them. –bland smile-

**Rumia:** No voting anymore, remember? –pokes gently- And sure, I'll try and keep it up. Of course Yoh and Anna make a wonderful couple; they –are- canon, after all.

**BabyKaoru-Sama:** A week and a day; hopefully soon enough for you. :) I would have updated it earlier, but real life conditions have met in a conjunction decidedly unhappy for my online life.

**winner-loser:** No, it's all right. Trust me, some other people have been a –lot- more blunt about their voting. Thank you. :)

**Anna1215:** -laughs- I'm sorry. But at least you didn't vote as everyone else did long after the fact – I'm still getting emails that say nothing but what pairing people want.

**lent0inkz:** Well, you can always hope, can't you:P

**pendulumxswing:** Nah, I think Horo was just surprised. –hugs her squishy blue Ainu- It seemed like a canon reaction to me. Why don't you like yaoi?

**X37:** WAH. –embarrassed look- Guess I'm not that good at painting out the moral shades of gray, then. I'll have to work on that. He IS sweet; he's just caught in… circumstances.

**anime-obsession260:** Well, Yoh and Anna sang; hope it lived up to your expectations. :)

**hannami08:** Hey. :) Nice to see one of the anonymous hits on my counter turn up. Just remember that it splits into two arcs at the end, all right? If you don't remember, I believe it was in one of my author's notes; probably worth reading those, neh? ;)

**Inulover4eva:** -laughs- It's all right, no worries. And I've updated! Not to mention I've chapter thirteen right on my hard drive and ready to go…

**Kasumi Nishikao:** Yep; my name on LJ is Lasakura; feel free to friend me. I haven't been on a computer I trust all week, so I can't get on at the moment, but I'll try and add you when I get on the one at home. And you're not spamming. xD I generally appreciate the longer reviews since they're actually saying something probably worth listening to rather than the usual, uber-vague 'great job!'. And, er, isn't sempai generally for –guys-?

**Pandorac:** Anna was prominent in this section. xD What can I say, saving the best for last.

**asn water:** -grins- As Ren would say: "Huh! My family composed 66 classical songs and made an audience of 666 people cry before your family ever realized that beating each other over the head with rocks wasn't a good idea!"

**Teishya:** What, really? I'll need to work on that, then. ;) Thanks for pointing that out – inadvertently, as it may be.


	15. Visions in and of the Future

**Disclaimer: **If I owned Shaman King, 4Kids would have never removed it from their Saturday schedule, those cretins. They wouldn't know quality television if it came up and kicked them in the head, which should be considered, if only to bring them to their senses.

**Author's Note:** I wrote this chapter the evening that I posted up Karaoke Part One, and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Come on, who doesn't love drama?

* * *

Chapter Thirteen: Visions in and of the Future

"_She wanted to remind us," he said precisely, "of the tradition that they had." He paused. The awkwardness within his expression returned in full force as he spoke the next words._

"_Of each Candidate's selecting a Shaman Queen."_

At this, Anna's gaze – already inscrutable with the narrow blackness of obsidian, reflecting distorted shadows of the watchers back out as grotesque beasts – went blanker still, as though the soul that ordinarily resided behind her gaze had vanished, and no power on earth would bring it back again. She would not step back – such would have indicated a retreat, and she did not do such things, though others might – but her face was small and white and a little fragile in the crack of luminescence that shone out from behind the slitted open door.

Instinctively, Yoh's eyes snapped to her, and he took a half-step forward before the realization of the recent events occurred to him and he froze in place, momentarily uncertain. His hand, which had extended itself instinctively for her, snapped back as though it had been bitten. As though in defiance of his movement, she recovered then; her head straightened to erectness, chin lifting with the calm assurance that the _itako_ had always borne, her hands dropping from Hao's grip with a boneless grace to fold neatly before her. She stared at him blackly, defying him to mention what he had just seen, what had passed between them.

Hao, catching the subtle loosening of her hand, released it and allowed his own fingers to fall to his side. His eyes glinted with something like amusement as he surveyed the both of them and the silence that rang on between them, thick with the accusations and the words that went unspoken. Then, with the great exaggeration of deliberated movement, he curled an arm about her waist, his eyes level upon that of his youngest brother's. But before the latter could react, there was a snap.

Anna stepped to the right; a small, almost unnoticeable shift of her weight, distinctly away from Hao. (His possessive grip fell away, and for a fleeting instant, there was something like surprise in his eyes.) Her own expression was brittle with frost, and her eyes glowed like malice, though it seemed impartial and did not seem to care enough for the boy that she had spent the evening with to loathe him.

Her voice, as she spoke, was quietly vehement, laden with the sting that was uniquely her own. She behaved as though Yoh had not spoken of the tradition, and Hao responded to her cue with a laconic indulgence that kept it sharply within min that he could bring it up again if he so desired.

"I do not belong to you." This was spoken calmly to Hao, who seemed at ease until one noted the faintly widened circlets of his irises. "Neither do I belong to Yoh.. kun. But I made a promise to Yohmei-dono long ago, when I was first engaged to Yoh—" her eyes flickered to him coolly, then back again, "—and I will not break it now."

"Promises are made to be broken." Hao appeared faintly entertained by this development. He watched her, nevertheless, and his eyes seemed like to made of obsidian; gleaming and icy with its perfection, with things like shadows and secrets not meant to be seen to be seen in his eyes if she looked too closely. (And so she did not.) "The fact that you need someone to make a promise means that you're not as sure of them as you'd like. A promise makes sure that it's less a fact, engraved in stone, than a chain made by the hands of humans."

"This was my promise." The itako asserted, her eyes boring coldly into his. "Are you implying something, shaman?"

He glanced at her, the threat promised within those wiry, firmly set arms. "No…" He murmured, and there was a hint of a mocking smile curled about his lips. "No, I wasn't."

Abruptly, his spirit flashed into existence – or perhaps it had always been there, only shrouded with the blackness of burnt coals in the shadows. But it was not as it had always been; its size had diminished to something conveniently petite. This, however, did not lessen the threat that glimmered from every line of that hard, coruscating body; it seemed as though by rendering itself small, it had concentrated its existence into the space that it occupied, and now was rife with the force of its life and subsistence.

Like a familiar, it flew to his shoulder with the quickness of a bird, hovering there in an absurd reversal of roles; he now the carrier where it had carried _him_.

He did not look back as he stepped past his brother towards the door, though he did offer a quick glance to the side. His eyes slid to clash neatly with those of his younger brother's, and for a brief moment, something like sparks danced between them as a tiny war raged.

"Good evening, _otouto_." The dark-haired shaman whispered at last, his eyes heavy on Yoh's, as if nothing in the world were wrong. Then, with a soft laugh, he turned back to Anna. (The Spirit of Fire sparked on his shoulder; a tiny luminescent curve that drifted across the air before fading into a crisped black and falling soundlessly to the floor.)

"You may change your mind." He said, warmly so that it carried into the curve of her ear. But there was disdain in those words, disdain in the curled lip and the faint enjoyment of the new turn of events that was in his lightless look. Half-shrouded by the shadows, he looked like some dream half-wakened, his hair still faintly shambolic from that brief, lingering embrace that rested between them like faith. "I offer you that; the opportunity to change your mind if you so desire it. You don't need to answer my offer now—" he added, for already she had opened her mouth to speak what could only be words of condemnation and contempt for what he spoke. "—but you may hold it until you need me."

His gaze said what his smiling lips did not: _You will need me._

Then he swept past her in a brush of a cloak the color of sunlight (it wrapped about him tightly like a lover's embrace; as warmly as her own arm had slung about his neck a few moments ago, though she would not think of that now) and a blaze of fire, and was gone past the door, into the house.

* * *

"Tamao, what are you doing out of bed?" 

The girl squeaked in fright, catching at her elbows in obvious fear as she turned slowly. She had thought that she recognized the voices, and her hesitance solidified into certainty as she encountered a certain fox-spirit's elongated features, alongside the rotund racoon that served as his companion. They stared at her with a kind of baleful amusement, though she was pale enough, distracted enough so that she did not recognize their looks – she was accustomed to it, after all. They served her not out of pity for her, or love for her, but because Mistress Kino had threatened to exorcize them if they didn't protect her. And in the face of that fate, probably they would do anything.

"Ponchi," she whispered in pleased relief, though she bent her head in an abrupt storm of shyness; even – and particularly, for they were prone to making jokes that she didn't understand and turned her cheeks a fiery crimson – with her spirits she was rather timid, "Conchi. I'm not doing anything, really. I just…"

Conchi peered at her with something like mild interest within his gaze. As an animal spirit to a rather dull fortuneteller-in-training, he had honed his skills of seeing trouble (and therefore, amusement for him!) at a great distance since he had taken up with her. And the way she looked now, the way she blushed, shouted TROUBLE at him all over.

The thought pleased him, and abruptly he snickered, his cheeks spreading into a broad, malicious smile. "What did you see, Mistress?" He inquired with the silkiness of evil curiosity. "Was it a vision? Is anyone going to be dead?"

"No." Tamao murmured in an undertone, and clutched her sketchbook to her chest in a furious denial of that thought, though it was more of desire than of certainty. "No, no… he cannot die. He will not die…"

"Hm?" Ponchi eyed her musingly. For a girl who didn't do anything aside from training and going to school, Tamao knew a surprising amount of boys. The spirit put it down to all that association with those chattering, bullying girls that she went with at school – the ones that she stolidly refused, despite having all the backbone of gelatine desert, to allow him to harm – who tended to attract men the way clothes attracted moths. There could only be a few, however, that she spoke of in that way – and only one that she would think of at such a ridiculous hour of the night.

Really. After all, even spirits needed their beauty rest, and the Great Spirits knew that Conchi would _need_ all that beauty sleep if he was ever going to improve his looks.

"Are you speaking of Yoh?" Conchi inquired artlessly, his grin extending far beyond the regions of his cheeks in a grotesque smile that only ghosts, who could rearrange their appearances with effort and practice, could manage.

Tamao's blush intensified. "Don't… speak of him so familiarly." She murmured, the blood hot in her cheeks. Her fingers tightened about the notebook in which she kept her divinations as well as rudimentary sketches that she had attempted to draw of him – she had shown him neither, despite his wry tuggings and pleas. It was difficult enough for him, probably, to love her with all of her shyness and her flaws, and her heart ached at the thought that he might be driven away if he saw how _truly_ flawed she was – how dependent she was on him, starved for the sight of his smile and his happiness.

She had not begrudged Anna Yoh's engagement, though she had wished desperately during those years that it were herself to whom he was engaged. Nevertheless, she thought that she could not stand it now if Yoh went back to her; if Yoh returned to what he had been. Anna knew best, of course, (it was what she had always been taught) but Tamao could not help but feel a faint surge of an unTamao-like anger at the remembrance of the scrapes and bruises and the wry comportment with which he had borne them; toleration intermingling with something like a wistful affection.

Conchi rolled his eyes. "You've been apprenticed to his family since nearly you were born." He pointed out, sardonically. "It's about time you started calling him something other than Yoh-dono, Yoh-kun, Yoh-san." He mocked her obeisances with a stretch of his mouth, allowing his tongue to loll out in an extravagant grimace.

Tamao shut her eyes furiously, mustering up a glare, though it appeared more of an effort not to burst into tears. Her eyes stung with salt, and watered faintly, though she refused to believe that she had been prompted into tears by her own spirit's words. "You be quiet." She said, vehemently. "Yoh-kun deserves all the respect, because he is the heir to the Asakura traditions; the only one who can carry it on. And he's more than worthy of it!"

"Conchi didn't say he wasn't," Ponchi said, a little worriedly. Tamao did not act like this – she was quiet and easygoing and about as difficult to walk over as a carpet. This was not something Tamao would do. But something in her dreams seemed to have hardened her resolve now; her eyes flared with it – the power that Mikihisa might have seen in her all those years ago when he had first taken her as an apprentice.

She did not reply, only turned upon her heel to stride down the corridor with all the huffiness of any other girl – down to the familiar room of fortunetelling. Shivering with something like to unease, the two spirits followed. Although they were not worried enough to snicker as it dawned upon them that she had been in such a hurry to leave her bed that she wore only the skimpy nightgown she had always worn; the fragile cloth that she had received at eight that had been too big for her then, and too small for her now.

Ponchi began to hum "Tamao's quite a ba-abe, Tamao's quite a ba-abe," under his breath. But because of that unnerving reception he had received earlier, he did it quietly. That reminder that she was a fortuneteller, and thereby a person of power, unnerved him slightly, and he did not feel inclined to go through that process again.

The pink-haired girl stepped into the room, and stopped for a moment as the power crashed over her in a wave of strength, surging into her as though she were only a conduit for the powers that resided within that fragile frame. And perhaps she was.

In only moments, she had set up the softly lit room with her own crude fortune-telling things – the notepad was laid carefully on the floor, in the holy circle painted and re-painted on the floor for all of the time that the Asakura house had existed. Dropping to her knees, she held a coin level between her index and third finger for a few moments before dropping her hand to the paper. Mutely, with only Ponchi and Conchi hovering behind her as quiet guardians and witnesses, as they ought to have been, she traced out her question.

And watched, in horror, as her fingers moved without her will, but with the will of something beyond, tracing out the answer that she had prayed she would not see.

Her heart contracted with an unnatural tightness, and her throat went crackling dry with uncertainty. As the answer was completed, her hand dropped to her side, hanging there with something like to despair.

_Oh, Yoh…_

* * *

"Anna?" His voice was familiar with the rich warmth that, she had thought, might someday inspire a veritable army to follow him wherever he might ask. But it did not charm her now – she had seen the sweetness, seen the awkwardness turned into a knife-edge that had abandoned her and would not take her back, even now. That stinging knowledge hung foremost in her thoughts as she faced him: _he had not wanted her. That was what had started all of this. He had not wanted her. _"The promise that you made to my grandfather…" 

"Will be kept." She said with her level monotone. "You do not need to worry of it. You will be Shaman King."

His smile was a little awkward, eyes creasing into something like an expression of embarrassment. "That wasn't what I meant, and you know it."

"No," she said in her cold way, watching that smiling awkwardness fade into something like puzzlement, "I don't know. And I don't want to. I made a promise to your grandfather, I will keep it, and that is the whole of the deal that was sealed between us."

"No," said Yoh suddenly, and the smile had vanished into something like a birdlike solemnity. His eyes did not move away from her head, which had turned away as though she could not stand the sight of him. "That wasn't the whole of the deal."

"You broke that other portion of your own accord." If her voice had been chilly before, now it encompassed an entire glacier of ice. "It has nothing to do with you anymore." Her tone was one of diamonds encrusted within the arctic floors of winter. "Consider the remainder, the agreement that I would be the one to train you, a contract that I made with your grandparents if you like; protection and training in exchange for training of my own. I've had my training. You'll have yours. I expect to see you up at six tomorrow morning. Goodnight." The words were spoken in a blaze as she swept past him and was gone as well, as swiftly as his brother had been, but with something that ached still; with puzzlement… and regret.

He stood stock still upon the porch for a few moments, reflecting and reviewing the whole of his evening before giving a sudden, dry groan. After having annoyed Anna so, he had, at least, a little to look forward to in that he would no longer be forced to train. But here it was, the torture camp that he had sought to avoid for the majority of his life, back again, and he didn't even have the guarantee that he would be needed as her fiancée to survive the experience…

This year was not shaping up to be a good one. And to think, it was only a few more weeks until school let out, as well.

_Training all summer, the sun scorching his back until it turned black from overtanning. Hao, lounging about on a beach watching him run his thousandth lap with a small, contemptuous smile. Anna, devoid of sympathy, with a whip in her hands and claws as her nails and a demonic gleam in her eye._

That was it. He was entirely dead. He would simply have to pack his bags, procure a false mustache, and move to America before Anna caught up with him and dragged him back to Japan by the ear for his training.

On cue, a thick splatter of _something_ dropped onto the house's front steps in a nearly silent movement that nevertheless drew his attention. With the wary alertness of a fighter, Yoh turned to glance sharply at the sound.

A figure loomed over his doorstep with a stature that seemed to block out the moon and all that was light in the evening. A great shadow, it presided over him, silently menacing as its arms extended and something far thicker than water dripped onto the porch again. Glancing down, Yoh realized, with a dull, slow horror that in the moonlight it appeared black, but the open door that Anna had left behind her shed light onto the scene, and the light turned the liquid into the biting dark crimson of blood…

* * *

**Author's Note**: Who's dripping blood on Yoh's nice clean porch? Do you know how hard it is to clean bloodstains out of wood? …I hope you don't from personal experience, but at any rate, I rather doubt you'll guess in any case. (Even if you do know from personal experience.) Still, you're welcome to try.

I won't be posting chapter previews this time, since that would spoil the whole theme about surprise. But here's a hint. The character…

…

…is from Shaman King!

Brilliant hint, huh?

Reviews and critiques are always appreciated – even just a little note to let me know that you've dropped by and read this would be appreciated. Thank you! And now for the review replies…

Review Replies:

**Satori-chan:** Nice to see I was added and all. :) And of course she does; I wrote it with the assumption that her voice was still being played by the same seiyuu who plays her in the Japanese anime. ;) Aah – I'm not used to being honoured; thanks. :P

**Hana:** -is hugged- :3 Thank you! I hope you'll be able to endure as many chapters as it'll take to finish this and restrain yourself from killing me before the end.

**Rumia:** Just remember the arcs; either way you get your pairing, even if you change your mind halfway.

**Pendulumxswing:** I suppose – although I still don't understand. –guilt-

**Azimataiji:** Don't beg. I'm not sure I could stop anyway. I adore the cast too much to leave them hanging.

**hannami08:** Well, let me put it this way: if FnU doesn't get translated I will be the first of the line at Shonen Jump's office to beat them over the head with a hockey puck. :D I've got up to chapter four of the French version, I believe, although I haven't had enough time yet to read them. I think they mentioned that he was Yoh's son, though. (Alas for suspense or lack thereof!)

**Dillpops:** -laughs- I based a small piece off of your question's inspiration: it's called Out of Canon and Fiction. I'm… really not sure how I feel about him. He's just Hao; king as his name implies and beyond judgment.

**anime-obsession260:** Obviously we have different taste. ;) I think the chapters coming up are better. Of course, they're more narratively fun.

**cherri-chan:** Don't worry about it; I ditched it for a bit during the school year myself. Things come up, and we can't help but go in our way to meet them.

Also, Ren's you can listen to; it's his image song he's singing, after all. It's pretty strange and jazzy, and I love it. :D And of course Anna was displeased – consider the situation from her point of view! ;)

You seem to be attracted to all the GRUMPY Chinese bishies, then. xD And I like Paku Romi's voice – she does a lovely job as Ed from FMA.

**Lincel:** This AU fic's just a bit AU; what might have happened if the choices that the characters had made were changed just _so_. What would happen if Eliza were still alive. What would happen if Hao decided to stay and watch over the progress of his little brother rather than training from afar. What might have happened if the Shaman Fight were a little more well thought-out and decisive in the name of a king who has not just strength, but strategic schemes that can go on for more than the minutes that a Shaman Fight takes. Probably never going to show you what Hao thinks, no, because then he'd lose everything. Not to mention I really have no idea.

I've been considering various pairings for Chocolove. I think people may kill me if I focus too much on him, though, so I won't mention too much about it. As for Lyserg and Manta – you'll have to wait and see. ;)

Video tape. Hm. ;D

**neoKOS-MOS:** I realize – it's partially why I'm being productive now, to make up for what school has done to dent my schedule and put me off. Thankfully mine let out a few weeks ago. Plans are still in the works, but it's hit about twenty-odd chapters and shows no signs of slowing anytime soon. Don't kill me if I'm wrong, but I'd say that this is going to be thirty to forty chapters. Maybe more if you count the fact that at some point they have to break into arcs to satisfy the pairings.

I currently have an addiction to parentheses. –guilt- I really should break myself of the habit but it's just so much _fun_.

-coughs- Yes. Well. Hao is. Um.

I'm trying to put Tamao in as much as possible, but she IS like sand – slips out of the limelight from right between your fingers, and doesn't look special in it unless you use a microscope. Thankfully she consented to be in this chapter.


	16. An Unexpected Death

**Disclaimer: **If I owned Shaman King… Takei would be held in a building somewhere and made to write a proper ending for it:D Although I suppose that'd be expecting a bit much; there are some things not even owning the world will get you.

**Author's Note:** Ack! So sorry, I'm overdue again. –embarrassment- I got caught up in writing something else and by the time I got round to this I had lost all inspiration for this. I ended up writing this in two sittings, and it shows, I suppose, in its lack of length and overuse of synonyms. Also, I think I now have a beta, and I should send chapters to her in the future, but I just wanted to get this up as soon as I could.

So: celebrate with me. Yay, beta!

The chapter title is a little off-key and uninspired, I know, but I rather like it, myself. -grin- Read on and see why, I suppose.

Also, if the font is a little peculiar, forgive me; I'm on a strange computer.

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Chapter Fourteen: An Unexpected Death

As a child, Anna had laughed at him – not with amusement or contempt, but the blankness of a girl who had not the artistry (yet) to make silences, twist them and rend them as if they were clay. He was not a fighter, this child made of sticks and an awkward dreamer's smile that had never quite fit. But he had learned, over the years – too much.

As the figure leered up in flares of distorted shadows, he danced back until he forcibly struck the door, rocking on his heels as he put a hand to the side to steady his crouch, his other outflung, prepared to summon _furyoku_ at an instant's notice; raw and malleable like purposeless static.

(He had all the mannerisms of a fighter now; and was not one still. The fighter's grace that he had learned, with great difficulty, from his fiancé was useless without the energy to support it, and he had none of that; no spirit, even at sixteen, which made him the shame of the Asakuras, hidden like some ugly secret in the closet with the rest of the skeletons and horrors that all shaman families possessed.)

The creature stepped forward. In moments his features resolved; from grotesquely warped like the countenance of a leviathan from the deep to something familiar from the shaman's memories. This was who had bandaged his childhood battle scars, had moved in from Germany and stood by all the while to smile.

He was no longer smiling now, the color of his eyes deformed and swollen with crimson veins that were black in the moonlight. His doctor's coat was open, whipping and flaring with an obscene life as the night wind breezed through it and past it. Unconsciously, the wavering specter put forth tender fingers, drawing the heavy white oilskin about the slim figure nestled against his chest and his cradling embrace. A name was on his lips, dripping from his tongue in slick strikes that bypassed hearing and understanding and left Yoh a little bemused, with a twisting, writhing dread at his stomach that did not touch his eyes.

"Faust?" He said, and the name came as more question than he had intended. The gathering furyoku in his cupped hand dissolved as he spoke, a spill of wastefulness that Anna was not about to condemn.

The doctor looked up. In the harshness of the moonlight, his eyes were violently black, the whites of his eyes aging yellow as he stumbled into the fragment of light from within the house. The outline in his arms lolled about with too much laxness, and a long lock flashed buttery gold beneath the light. (She was beautiful and still, some daintily crafted doll who could be set before a sculptor and make that sculptor despair for his lack of skill, his inability to make something so precious that a person could look at her controlled, highbred features and feel their heart ache for something they would never have.) And as the illumination spilled relentlessly over her long, elegant face, Yoh realized that her eyes were closed, and the only movements that pervaded her were the elder man's wild, clumsy gesticulations, and the slow, sticky trickle of something crimson over her cheek…

"Help her." The shaman said hoarsely, thrusting her forward. Yoh did not flinch away, only stood, looking steadily at the older man with an expression that he himself might not have recognized. "She—car—" He drew in a quick, rapid breath, efficient and careful with the manner of a physician regarding the practicalities. "An accident. A car—" He clenched his fingers beneath her head before loosening them again to gently cradle the base of her skull. "You are a shaman, as I am. Help me." His eyes stared appealingly up towards the boy, though his lips were thin as though he did not trust him to understand the urgency of this. He had, Yoh recalled, always thought of the boy as someone frivolous, lazy and languid with none of the power that might have excused such a demeanor. And he had been, but still that was no excuse for that he did not hide it; had never hidden it and left the shaman with his smiling, soft contempt. "She needs help – you were closest, and—"

Yoh spoke. "I can't."

The former's violet gaze flickered over his own smooth black ones, and the shaman thought that he might have seen another two or three veins flicker into being within those eyes; savagely without understanding like those of an animal's."Help her!" He said again wildly, his voice rising with an edge like a knife jagged and none of the professional finesse that the boy had associated with the doctor. "Help her—you have power, I've always seen it, help her. My shaman powers aren't enough—" he tore at his hands furiously, shook so badly that Eliza's body trembled as though she were alive again, seeing the scene arrayed before her like a drama that could be played to no good end. "Please—you have strength enough to restore her to life, you could, you could—"

"I can't." Dark eyes flicked to meet the doctor's, then away again. He thought of his grandmother, who had once neatly bandaged his grandfather's leg when he had tripped and fallen over the stairs, of his mother, whom he saw very little of, but who spoke of his father with a wry, charming smile. And he thought of the man before him, bloodied and but unharmed, so unharmed that all the doctor's training he had ever received had flown out of his mind so that a pulse still beat as strongly within illusion as it ever had in reality. (He thought – did not think – of a girl who had slapped him as a child for being impertinent, who had caught at his hand with her own when he was fourteen and told him that he was being a child over his bleeding fingers, and who was there still, untouchable.)  
"You do! You must!" The doctor all but screamed the words, voice speared with an edge of hysteria that had never before been present in his tones. "You must—I can't live without her—you must bring her back… I'll give anything, anything—"

"I told you that I can't, Faust." As the blond man raised his gaze, he saw Yoh's own features, lit with some inner softness that was tragic and simultaneously beautiful. "Few can raise the dead so that they are alive again. There are necromancers and there are charlatans out there who will say it is easy, that it is only a matter of power and power enough, but that isn't it. No one can bring the dead back to life again – it's never been power, but-"

"Power." Whispered Faust. "It _is_ a matter of power enough, and you have it." He bowed his head towards the cold, limp figure between his arms, and Yoh saw his shoulders, shaking. Carefully, delicately so that the woman in his arms would not be shaken nor dislodged, he knelt with some difficulty in the pool of blackening crimson spreading about his ankles. (Yoh, opening the door faintly, saw her legs; crushed so that fragments of bones jutted out like sinful citadels in a swirling bloody pulp.)

"Please." Said the doctor. (And he recalled that this was Faust, who did not beg as a matter of engrained assurance, and shivered with that remembrance: Faust did not beg, and yet here he was on his knees, offering everything he had ever had for the fragments of a chance..) "Please. Bring her back, whole and well, and I will give you anything you ask. There are rituals I have heard of." He drew in a sharp, deep breath as if the words would drain the air from him and leave him suspended, without enough in him to gasp a cry, "I will let you have my life if only you will bring her back again."

There was madness in his eyes, and what could Yoh understand of madness that did not release him, madness that seemed to flare up? He might have pretended to, once, but he thought of Tamao and his heart was small and cold and whispered only of a devotion that he could not match; and of Anna, of a flaming star who had all the world to grace and not simply a boy who had never loved her. Nevertheless, he tried: "Shaman powers are a matter of nature, not of—"

He saw the careful, wary movements of the other man, but did not think of his actions until he felt the bright, harsh pain against his mouth, the bones (padded by skin) clacking hard against the teeth past his closed lips. Faust drew his hand back and looked at it numbly; in the unwavering severity of the lights in the corridor, the crimson that splattered the back of the shaman's hand was black like traces of ink, writings of words that were better off not spoken.

Yoh touched his bruised mouth numbly, eyes never leaving that of his older companion.

"Heartless." Said the doctor softly, and lapsed into German speech that the dark-haired boy did not understand but thought had the softness of a quotation. Then, with the uneasiness of an alien nature, he fell back into the familiarity of speech that Yoh had known all his life, though the words that he said then were hardly any better than when he had spoken in tongues and the boy had caught the razor-sharp intent behind them. "Lifeless, loveless – how could I have expected you to understand? You, who have never loved, who has only had mistresses and masters in a relentless procession. You, who have loved as a matter of convenience and self-satisfaction – how could I expect you to understand?" He was nearing gentleness now, and his expression was oddly pitying, the fragility of crystals.

The younger shaman was silent still, his hand at his mouth to stem the blood, his eyes fixed upon Faust as if he thought that he might find the secret answer to his questions there. Then, he said, with the a careful thickness, "I can't bring her back." and was silent again.

"I see." The doctor said, voice frosted and rimed with ice. The words broke a little, but their syllables glittered with the sharp hardness of glass, jagged and broken in needlepoint splinters. His speech was accented as it had always been, but with a clipped dignity, rather than the soft overbreath that he had used before. He struggled a little, rising to his feet – Yoh moved forward to aid him instinctively, but the doctor held him off, and the warning flare within those violet eyes, abruptly turned to a wintry hostility, stopped him.

"You won't." He said, and for a moment Yoh thought, with the strange, mad illogic of the moment, that he meant that he wouldn't help him rise again. But Faust went on, and his words clarified, though they did nothing to lighten the deepening unease at the pit of his stomach. "You can—I see the power; it's always been my strength, to see things—but you won't." And he dropped his chin, fitting it to the small notch at his collarbone, though the shaman thought that his eyes never left that piteous, crushed girl in his arms.

"But if _you_ can…" the doctor said softly, his tones strangely musing. A gloved hand emerged, the white silk stained with sticky scarlet fading to rust, stroking the line of her cheek with a peculiar tenderness that squirmed at the back of the boy's mind discomfortingly. "Well, it shouldn't be impossible. All I need to do is become stronger, stronger than you." His eyes came up again levelly and fixed upon Yoh's own, yet did not see them; glazed with despair.

When he spoke again, his voice was hard, his eyes refracting that same callousness with the kind of pressure that might create diamonds.

"I will see you again, Yoh. Count on it."

And, turning neatly upon his heel, he exited the yard, Eliza's corpse cradled tenderly in his arms, warm as though she were still alive.

* * *

**Author's Note**: And there we have tension! –triumph- (Although only Faust x Eliza romance. Those of you who were expecting something else, my sincere apologies and I will throw chocolates at you if necessary.) There was a reason this was one of my favorite chapters, you know. –laughs- The next chapter's title (tentatively set, although I've had this planned for a while) is called Just a Day. Props to anyone who can guess what song lyrics I snatched it from – you'll probably guess what the next chapter's about, too, if you manage it.

On a more important note, my Internet has broken down. I am currently on dial-up and still posting updates; the next one should be next Friday, with luck.

Also, my hit counter struck over 1300 viewers –100 for each of the previous two chapters alone. All I can say is – wow. I'm rather happy that anyone could re-read that chapter that often. Thank you so much:) And now for replies…

Review Replies:

**Satori-chan: **Well of course. :P You can't imagine how much time it takes to get it out of cloth, either. –should do an extra scene with Faust and blood and the washing thereof- I'm glad you like it so much, though. :)

**asn water:** -laughs- Nah, no one's throwing blood at anyone. That'd be kind of weird, though, throwing blood at Yoh. o.O It's just dripping on his porch. Maybe I didn't make that clear enough… -worry-

**candee:** Well, I left off to start the karaoke chapters at a fairly critical time; I shouldn't think I'd cool it off to suit anyone. :P Also, naturally it's confusing; it's meant to go on for at least another fifteen chapters at the least – it's not going to start settling any time soon. –grins- And I appreciate the long review. :D

**azimataiji: **Aww, why crying? It's not even anywhere near over yet. And here's the update, although it's admittedly horribly late.

**neoKOS-MOS:** Yes well, here's more cause for excitement as I appear to be late again, and if I'm on time next Friday you can be excited. :D As will I be. Poor Eliza. –pets her- I've been planning this for ages; am beginning to think when I have time later I should double back and give her the dignity of an on-stage scene of death at the very least.

I don't understand why no one ever uses Ponchi and Conchi. I mean, I've seen fanfics for people I've never even heard of (so far), and yet there's no justification-fic for what're possibly the two most obnoxious spirits in Shaman King-dom.

I really think I overdid the parenthesis this chapter; it's back to something a little less ornate in the next, I hope.

**anime-obsession260:** Whee, updates. :D Slow, belated updates, true, but updates. Behold!

**hannami08:** -hee- You like Anna, then – let me pose you a question: would you rather she had a straight pairing or a harem of both Yoh and Hao? Just out of curiosity.

**Acrella: **All of my Hao x Anna fans seem to dislike the idea of Yoh x Tamao. –grins wryly- I don't understand why you'd want it so, though; Tamao loves Yoh. Admittedly she is a little pink and shy and fuzzy, but I'm not of the opinion that she should be underestimated simply because she's in love. If you've read the HP series, look at Ginny, after all.

**Dillpops:** Well, it obviously didn't get me thinking very seriously, but I did love writing that piece and look forward to writing another, if only because this gives me some practice, some ability to hint at what's coming.

I'm really not very fond of this writing style; too ornate and full of adjectives for my taste. Still, it's good for practice. X.x;

**cherri-chan:** -laughs- Nah, Ren would arrive in style, possibly with a small carriage, and drop out of it to bleed on the ground. I don't underestimate Chinese characters; believe me.

Well, Sasuke LOOKS Chinese… -innocent- Although I prefer his brother, myself, if only because of the randomized violence he seems inclined to dole out to various people – there has to be a story of some kind behind that, doesn't there?

Paku Romi did a fantastic job, and look at her resume; she seems to have had a part in every major anime ever to cross the screen and the oceans to America.

**Nevermindme:** Ah, but who can resist the challenge of inserting a small backbone into an insipid character? She is, after all, a Shaman, and I can't recall one that didn't have power of one sort or another over things.

**maya amano: **-suffers tremendously- That was a typo; it's supposed to be _itako, _the meaning of which I presume you know. :)


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